PaiHGSTGN  ' 


THEeLOGIC/-. 


1;^-         -V 


^-^ 

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BS  651  .G62  1882 
Godet,  Fr  ed  eric  Louis 

1812-1900. 
Studies  of  creation  and  lif, 


/   iVf_^^ 


STUDIES 


OP 


CREATION  AND   LIFE. 


BY 

REV.   F.    GODET,   D.D. 

PROFESSOR  IN   THE  COLLEGE,   NEUCHATEL,  SWITZERLAND. 


American  Etiiiian. 


BOSTON: 
CONGREGATIONAL   PUBLISHING   SOCIETY. 

1882. 


Copyright,  1882, 
By  Congregational  Publishing  Society. 


Boston  Stereotype  Foundry, 
4  pearl  street. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

Introduction        . '5 

The  Six  Days  of  Creation 7 

I.     Revelation 9 

II.     Science ^^ 

III.  The  Two  Compared 38 

IV.  Conclusion 6i 

The  History  of  Life 68 

Angels 9^ 


INTRODUCTION. 


'THHE  author  of  the  following  Essays  was,  in  1843  ^^^ 
after,  the  preceptor  of  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia, 
and  was  and  still  is  highly  honored  by  the  royal  family. 
In  his  present  professorship  in  the  college  at  Neuchatel, 
Switzerland,  he  has  won  a  wide  and  high  reputation  as  a 
thorough  and  acute  student  of  the  Scriptures,  an  original 
thinker,  and  a  very  suggestive  and  inspiring  writer.  He  is 
best  known  to  American  readers  by  his  Biblical  Studies. 
These  Essays  first  appeared,  at  different  dates  since  1864, 
in  the  Revue  Chretienne  and  Chretien  Evangelique.  Some 
of  them,  revised  by  the  author,  were  translated  by  Mrs. 
E.  Littelton  and  under  the  editorship  of  her  husband, 
the  Hon.  and  Rev.  W.  H.  Littelton,  rector  of  Hagley, 
England,  were  published  in  two  separate  volumes  in  London, 
in  1868  and  1879. 

No  American  reprint  of  Prof.  Godet's  Studies  has,  to 
our  knowledge,  appeared.  But  their  originality,  rich  sug- 
gestiveness  and  tender  Christian  spirit  deserve  and  ought 
to  give  them  a  wide  circulation.  The  present  selection  is 
a  tentative  volume ;  to  be  followed  by  other  essays  if  a 
demand   shall    require    it.     It   includes    topics   especially 

pertinent  to  the  present  themes  of  popular  discussion  ;  and 

5 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

most  attractively  written  for  the  reading  of  young  people 
who  desire  to  know  the  conclusions  of  one  of  the  keenest 
and  clearest  thinkers. 

In  reply  to  a  letter  stating  the  wish  of  the  Congregational 
Sunday-School  and  Publishing  Society  to  issue  an  American 
edition  of  some  of  his  Studies^  and  inquiring  particularly  if 
his  theological  and  scientific  investigations  for  the  past  ten 
years  since  their  publication  had  modified  any  of  his  con- 
clusions, especially  in  his  Study  of  the  Creation^  Prof.  Godet 
writes,  April  15,  1882  :  "I  cannot  at  this  moment  know 
how  to  give  the  labor  of  a  revision.  And  if  I  had  the 
time  for  it,  the  changes  which  I  might  suggest  would  be 
without  any  importance,"  and  he  kindly  adds:  "Since  it 
is  in  a  religious  work  that  the  Society  is  engaged,  I  sur- 
render cheerfully  all  rights  of  authorship."  *'  We  have  the 
assurance,  therefore,  that  these  Studies  express  the  latest 
religio-scientific  theories.  At  a  later  date,  July  13,  Prof. 
Godet  has  sent  a  note  to  be  added  to  his  essay  upoti 
the  Creation,  which  will  be  found  in  its  proper  place. 

These  Studies  are  commended  to  the  thoughtful  study  of 
any  who  may  be  perplexed  by  plausible  speculations  upon 
the  origin  of  things  as  a  reasonable  solution  of  their 
difficulties. 

*  '•  Pour  moi,  je  ne  puis  en  ce  moment  savoir  ce  travail  et  le  modifier.  Et  si 
j'en  avais  le  temps,  les  changements  que  j'y  apporterais  seraient  sans  impor- 
tance. Puisque  c'  est  dans  un  but  religieux  que  travaille  la  societe,  au  nom  de 
laquelle  vous  m'ecrivez,  j'abandorme  sans  peine  touts  droits  d'auteur."  — 
Letter  of  April  15,  1882. 


STUDIES  OF  CREATION  AND  LIFE. 


THE   SIX    DAYS   OF    CREATION. 

AMONG  all  the  records  of  Holy  Scripture  none  has 
been  more  variously  estimated  than  that  of  the  Cre- 
ation, with  which  the  Book  of.  Genesis  opens.     Cuvier,  the 
founder  of  the  science  of  palaeontology,  expresses  himself 
as  follows  :     "  Brought  up  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, but  in  advance  of  his  age,  Moses  has  left  us  a  cos- 
mogony, of  which  the  accuracy  verifies  itself  every  day  in 
a  marvellous  manner.     Recent  geological  researches  are  in 
perfect  agreement  with  the  Book  of  Genesis  as  to  the  order 
in  which   organized  beings  were    successively  created."* 
On  the  other  hand,  one  hears  men  of  science  declaring  it 
henceforth  impossible  to  establish  any  agreement  betAveen 
the  facts  of  geology  and  the  picture  given  us  in  the  Bible. 
According  to  them,  we  must  consider  this  narrative  either 
as  the  product  of  an  ancient  tradition,  or  as  the  result  of 
philosophical  speculation ;  in  either  case,  as  a  composition 
of  purely  human  origin.     And  if  we  descend  to  more  pop- 
ular literature,  we  find  such  sentiments  as  these  :  "  Accept 
the  Bible  as  the  rule  of  belief  !     Must  we  then  believe  with 
Genesis,  that  God,  after  having  created  the  light  on  the 
first  day  rested  for  three  nights  before  He  produced  the 

*  Discours  sur  les  r^oltitions  du  globe. 


8  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

Stars  which  transmit  it  to  us  ?  that  the  herbs  of  the  field 
and  the  trees  of  the  forest,  created  on  the  third  day,  can 
have  grown  without  the  heat  of  the  sun,  moon  and  stars, 
which  were  not  created  till  the  fourth  day?"  *  Had  the 
narrative  of  Genesis  its  origin  simply  in  human  tradition  ? 
But  men  hand  down  to  one  another,  by  means  of  traditional 
records,  the  facts  of  which  they  have  been  witnesses.  Now, 
if  it  is  true  that  man  was  present  to  the  mind  of  God  during 
this  work  of  creation,  as  the  end  and  object  of  all  this  great 
labor,  it  is  equally  true  that  no  human  eye  contemplated 
this  unique  spectacle,  and  that  no  human  tongue  can 
have  related  its  phases;  "Where  wast  thou,"  says  the 
Eternal  One  to  Job,  "  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
earth  ?  and  when  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy .? "  f^ 
Was  this  picture,  then,  the  offspring  of  philosophy  ?  But 
the  idea  of  a  creation,  animal  or  vegetable,  anterior  to  man, 
and  developed  in  regular  course  through  its  diverse  phases, 
had  never  entered  the  mind  of  any  ancient  philosopher. 
The  very  notion  of  creation^  properly  so  called,  is  foreign 
to  all  ancient  thought. 

These  considerations  bring  us  back  to  the  idea  which  has 
pressed  itself  upon  many  scientific  minds  of  the  first  rank : 
—  it  is,  that  as  we  contemplate  this  picture  we  may  be  really 
in  the  presence  of  a  Divine  revelation.  What  then  ?  has 
God  really  spoken  to  men  ?  Did  He  bring  it  about  that 
one  of  their  race  should  be  a  spectator  of  some  of  those 
scenes  which  preceded  the  existence  of  man  here  below  ? 
If  so,  in  what  form  can  such  a  communication  have  been 
made  to  him  ?  And  in  what  relation  do  its  contents  stand 
to  the  actual  results  of  science  ?  These  are  the  impor- 
tant but  difficult  questions  which  we  now  propose  to  examine. 

*  Le  Progres,  organe  des  liberaux  du  Jura,  15  Mars,  1872. 
t  Job  xxxviii.  4,  7. 


'r 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  9 

I. 

REVELATION. 

Does  the  Jewish  monotheism  rest  upon  a  revelation  ?  Is 
the  history  of  Israel,  as  a  whole,  a  Divine  work,  designed 
as  a  preparation  for  that  moral  creation  which  Jesus  Christ 
came  to  effect,  and  in  foresight  of  which  the  first  creation 
had  already  been  completed  ?  And  may  we  suppose  the 
special  revelations  accorded  to  the  patriarchs  and  to  the 
Jewish  prophets  to  have  been  the  commentary  which  ac- 
companied this  educational  work,  since  all  education  should 
rest  upon  instruction  ?  It  is  in  this  light  that  the  Bible  rep- 
resents to  us  the  Divine  revelations  of  which  it  gives  an 
account.  ^^  Shall  I  hide  from  Abraham,"  God  says  to 
Himself,  "  shall  I  hide  from  Abraham  that  thing  which  I 
do?"*  When  it  is  God's  purpose  to  accomplish  here 
below  a  consecutive  work,  must  He  not  of  necessity,  unless 
He  is  to  work  an  infinite  series  of  miracles,  associate  with 
Himself  a  certain  number  of  free  agents,  who  shall  co- 
operate with  Him  ?  For  that  end  He  must  first  draw  them 
to  Himself;  then,  in  order  that  they  may  work  intelligently 
and  freely.  He  must  initiate  them  into  His  plan,  so  far  at 
least  as  they  are  to  participate  in  its  fulfilment ;  which 
presupposes  one  or  more  acts  of  revelation. 

One  of  the  prophets  expressed  in  the  following  words 
this  fact,  of  which  he  felt  himself  the  living  proof  :  "  Can 
two  walk  together  except  they  be  agreed  ?  .  .  .  surely  the 
Lord  God  will  do  nothing,  but  He  revealeth  His  secret  unto 
His  servants  the  prophets."  t 

Some  have  tried  to  explain  the  Jewish  monotheism,  and 
all  the  train  of  convictions  and  hopes  which  accompany  it, 

*  Gen.  xviii.  17.  f  Amos  iii.  3,  7. 


10  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

by  an  instinctive  tendency  in  the  Semitic  family,*  or  by  the 
natural  development  of  the  human  conscience,  which  should 
have  taken  place  more  rapidly  in  that  race  than  in  any 
other.  But  the  illustrious  writer  who,  in  our  time,  has 
scrutinized  more  deeply  than  all  others  the  secrets  of  the 
intellect  and  the  conscience  of  man,  by  the  help  of  the 
indications  offered  by  language,  M.  Max  Miiller,  has,  in  a 
masterly  manner,  refuted  this  naturalistic  theory. 

"  Is  it  possible  to  hold,"  he  says,  "  that  a  monotheistic 
instinct  can  have  been  bestowed  upon  all  those  nations  who 
worshipped  Elohim,  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  Moloch,  Nisroch, 
Rimmon,  Nebo,  Dagon,  Ashtaroth,  Baal,  Baal-peor,  Beel- 
zebub, Chemosh,  Milcom,  Adrammelech,  Anamelech,  Nib- 
haz  and  Tartak,  Ashima,  Nergal,  Succothbenoth,  the  sun, 
the  moon,  the  planets,  and  all  the  stars  of  the  firmament  ?  "  f 
All  these  names  of  divinities  belong  in  fact  to  the  pantheon 
of  the  Se77iitic  tribes.  The  same  author  again  reminds  us 
that  it  is  not  allowable  to  argue  from  the  example  of  an 
Abraham,  a  Moses,  an  Elias,  a  Jeremiah,  that  such  was  the 
general  tendency  of  the  Jewish  people,  since  it  is  a  fact 
"  that  this  nation  provoked  many  a  time  the  anger  of  the 
Lord,  by  offering  incense  to  other  gods."  X  Histor}-  attests 
that  Israel  was  inclined  to  the  same  polytheism,  whether  of 
a  refined  or  gross  kind,  into  which  all  the  other  nations 
fell ;  and  that  it  needed  a  continuous  effort  on  God's  part, 
carried  on  through  the  instrumentality  of  a  small  number 
of  chosen  men,  and  by  a  very  severe  discipline  effecting 
itself  often  by  the  most  rigorous  dispensations,  to  compel 
this  race  to  resist  the  downward  current  of  idolatry,  in  which 
it  was  by  nature  being  carried  away  like  all  others. 

*  M.  Renan. 

t  Essais  stir  Vhistoire  des  religions,  par  Max  Miiller,  traduit  par  Georges 
Harris,  1872,  p.  469. 
X  Muller,  p.  472,  473. 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  I  I 

Doubtless  we  must  admit  a  primordial  and  natural  rev- 
elation to  the  human  consciousness  of  the  existence  and  of 
the  essence  of  the  Godhead.  But,  as  M.  Miiller  observes, 
"  this  first  intuition  of  God  is  neither  monotheistic  nor 
polytheistic.  ...  It  finds  expression  in  this  article  of  faith  : 
God  is  God,  or  there  is  a  God ;  which  does  not  as  yet  imply 
that  there  is  ofie  only  God."  *  This  last  formula,  which 
contains  in  itself  an  express  denial  of  polytheism,  goes 
beyond  the  contents  of  natural  revelation.  How  are  we  to 
explain  the  fact  that  the  people  of  Israel  alone  were  in  pos- 
session of  this  knowledge,  and  made  it  the  basis  of  their 
national  existence  ?  Was  this  people  gifted  with  high  phil- 
osophic genius  ?  By  no  means.  M.  Max  Miiller  here 
reminds  M.  Renan  of  his  own  statements,  in  which  he 
denies  to  the  Semitic  nations  "  even  that  7?iini?7mm  of  reli- 
gious reflection  which  is  necessary  for  the  perception  of 
the  Divine  unitv."  * 

Inasmuch  as  it  is  historically  certain  that  all  nations  have 
raised  themselves,  by  virtue  of  the  religious  organ  with  which 
the  human  solil  is  endowed,  to  faith  in  Deity  in  general,  so 
is  it  equally  true  that  Israel  alone  has  reached  to  the  con- 
ception of  the  U7iity  of  that  Deity  w^hich  is  so  universally 
affirmed.  So  M.  Miiller  concludes  by  saying  plainly  :  "  per- 
haps we  shall  be  asked  how  it  came  to  pass  that  Abraham 
had  not  only  that  primordial  intuition  of  Divinity,  which  is 
common  to  the  whole  race,  but  had  attained  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  one  only  God,  —  denying  the  existence  of  all 
other  gods  ;  we  are  ready  to  reply  that  it  was  owing  to  a  spe- 
cial Divine  revelation.  %  We  are  not  here  making  use  of  the 
conventional  language  of  theolog}^ ;  we  wish  to  give  the 
term  we  employ  its  full  and  complete  meaning.  The  Father 
of  all  truth  chooses  His  prophets,  and  speaks  to  them  in  a 

*  Miiller,  pp.  479,  481.  t  Ibid.,  p.  475. 

X  Ibid.,  p.  505  (the  italics  are  our  own). 


12  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

voice  louder  than  thunder.  .  .  .  We  cannot  admit  that  the 
expression  Divine  insti?ict  is  the  fittest  to  use  in  describing 
a  grace  or  a  gift  granted  only  to  a  small  number  of  man- 
kind, nor  that  it  is  more  scientific,  that  is,  more  intelligible, 
than  that  of  special  revelation T  *  See  in  the  prairie  that 
troop  of  wild  horses  disporting  themselves  at  libert)'.  Not 
one  of  them  has  ever  felt  the  painful  pressure  of  the  bit, 
nor  the  overmastering  hand  of  a  strong  and  skilful  rider. 
Suddenly  there  appears  in  the  midst  of  them  another  horse, 
with  disciplined  paces,  well-knit  limbs,  and  measured,  yet 
rapid  gallop.  On  his  back  is  a  rider,  whose  hand  is  armed 
with  the  terrible  lasso.  He  pursues  these  young,  untamed 
horses,  throws  the  lasso,  entangles  them  in  the  fatal  noose, 
and  carries  them  away  captive  to  his  stud,  where  they  are 
in  their  turn  put  under  training.  Thus  it  was  that  Jehovah, 
even  while  leaving  the  nations  to  walk  after  their  own  ways^ 
prepared,  and,  as  it  were,  trained  for  Himself  in  Israel  a 
people,  by  means  of  whom  it  was  His  purpose,  when  the 
fulness  of  time  should  come,  to  draw  all  others  to  Himself. 
Had  He  not  said  beforehand  to  Abraham,  when  he  chose 
him  to  be  his  ser\'ant,  and  his  posterity  to  be  his  people : 
"  i7i  thee  shall  all  faiJiilies  of  the  earth  be  blessed"^.  " 

Among  all  those  whom  God  called  to  work  with  Him  in 
this  special  training  of  the  Jewish  nation  Moses  holds  with- 
out doubt  the  first  place.  It  was  through  him  that  the 
patriarchal  revelation  became  a  national  religion  and  re- 
ceived its  historic  character.  It  was  through  him  that  it 
disengaged  itself  completely  from  those  elements  of  polythe- 
ism which  still  clung  to  it  among  the  children  and  descend- 
ants of  Abraham  himself.  It  was  through  him  that  the  name, 
already  known  but  not  generally  used,  Jehovah,  was  substi- 
tuted for  the  ancient  name  El  Shaddai,  the  Almighty,  by  which 
they  had  before  addressed  the  God  who  revealed  Himself 

*  Miiller,  pp.  505,  506. 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  1 3 

to  the  Father  of  the  race,  —  the  name  by  which  God  had 
most  frequently  designated  Himself  in  addressing  the  patri- 
archs. This  substitution  was  nothing  less  than  the  starting- 
point  of  a  great  religious  revolution.  The  name  El  Shaddai, 
the  Almighty,  left  room  for  the  existence  of  other  powers 
by  the  side  of  God,  subject,  indeed,  to  His  supremacy,  but 
still  able  in  some  sort  to  compete  with  Him.  This  name 
signifies  nearly  the  same  as  that  which  a  certain  class  of 
religious  persons  still  like  to  use ;  the  Bei?tg  of  beings,  the 
Supreme  Bei?ig.  'But  Jehovah  signifies  He  who  is  and  shall 
be.  Jehovah,  therefore,  does  not  only  mean  the  most  powerful 
of  beings,  but  the  one  only  self-existent  Being  ;  the  absolute 
Being,  absorbing  in  Himself  the  idea  of  existence  ;  the  Being 
existing  by  his  own  Power ;  the  Being  as  subject,  noun  and 
attribute  in  one.  By  the  side  of  El  Shaddai  there  is  room 
for  others  inferior  to  Him  ^outside  of  Jehovah  there  is  but 
nonentity.  If  anything  does  exist  outside  of  Him,  it  is  only 
through  His  power,  and  in  consequence  of  His  creative  will. 
The  worship  of  El  Shaddai  did  not  then  expressly  include 
polytheism.  But  the  adoration  of  Jehovah  is,  in  its  prin- 
ciple, what  it  has  become  more  and  more  in  fact,  the  abso- 
lute divorce  of  the  conscience  from  all  forms  of  paganism, 
actual  or  conceivable.  We  have  in  Exod.  iii.  and  vi.  the 
simple  and  solemn  narrative  of  the  vision  granted  to  Moses, 
in  which  God  for  the  first  time  revealed  himself  in  the  char- 
acter of  Jehovah.  At  that  moment  was  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Jewish  monotheism,*  and  of  the  definitive  religion 
of  mankind.  But  it  was  not  only  against  polytheism  but 
against  its  hidden  principle,  materialism,  theoretical  and 
practical,  that  the  worship  of  Jehovah  was  to  be  thenceforth 

*  Exod.  vi.  2,  3 :  "  And  God  spake  unto  Moses,  and  said  unto  him,  I  am 
the  Lord.  And  I  appeared  unto  Abraham,  unto  Isaac,  and  unto  Jacob,  by  the 
name  of  God  Abnighty  (El  Shaddai),  but  by  My  name  Jehovah  was  I  not 
known  to  them." 


14  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

an  insuperable  barrier.  In  presence  of  the  self-existent 
Being,  the  independent  I  am,  absolute,  perfectly  conscious 
of  and  master  of  Himself*  —  of  Him  who  is  that  which 
He  wills  to  be,  and  because  He  so  wills,  just  as  truly  as 
He  wills  to  be  that  which  He  is,  and  because  He  is  such, 
—  how  could  Matter  claim  to  possess  any  self-determining 
existence  whatever  ?  This  obscure  principle,  akin  to  fate 
un-selfconscious,  —  this  brute  fact  without  will  and  impen- 
etrable by  intelligence,  this  amorphous  essence  which  all 
nations,  and  indeed  all  the  wise  men  of  old,  regarded  as 
co-existing  eternally  with  God  and  independent  of  Him,  if 
not  in  form,  at  least  in  substance,  —  this  uncreated  matter 
is  at  once  and  forever  set  aside  by  the  revelation  of  God  as 
Jehovah,  /  a77i.  t  Not  only  every  individual  being,  but  even 
the  substance  out  of  which  ever)'  being  is  formed,  has  no 
existence  but  that  which  it  pleases  the  free  will  of  God  to 
give  it.  And  here  we  have  the  idea  which  was  to  serve  as 
the  foundation  for  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
upon  earth.  With  this  sublime  conception,  the  reign  of 
real  spiritualism,  of  holiness,  was  founded  in  the  heart  of 
humanit^^ 

Does  matter  exist  eternally  and  by  itself  ?  That,  in  the 
universe,  which  resists  all  the  efforts  of  God  to  subdue  it 
to  Himself,  how  should  it  not  defy  all  our  endeavors  to 
gain  the  mastery  over  it  in  ourselves  ?  It  hinders  forever 
the  designs  of  the  Creator,  whose  will  it  is  to  realize  on 
this  earth  the  perfect  Good,  —  the  ideal  of  the  True,  the 
Just,  the  Beautiful, —  and  who  fails  to  reach  his  object 
because  He  meets  in  matter  an  insuperable  limit  to  his 
beneficent  action  ;  and  shall  we,  poor  feeble  human  beings, 

*  Exod.  iii.  14:  '■'■  I  am  that  I  ami'''  This  is  the  grammatical  paraphrase  of 
the  name  Jehovah  ;  this  name  is  in  the  future.  [See  French  Bible  :  "yV  serai 
celui  que  je  serai."  —  Tr.] 

t  "  /  am  "  (as  a  proper  name)  "  has  sent  me  unto  you." 


THE   SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  1 5 

claim  the  power  to  realize  the  ideal  of  morality,  notwith- 
standing the  resistance  of  flesh  and  blood  ?  God,  accord- 
ing to  this,  has  had  to  limit  Himself  to  the  arrattging  of 
matter  as  well  as  possibility  allowed,  and  the  world,  not- 
withstanding the  Divine  breath  which  He  infused  into  it, 
is  for  him  but  2, pis-aller ;  and  can  He  require  of  me  that, 
in  my  small  sphere,  I  should  do  better  than  He  ?  No,  if 
the  power  of  matter  is  insuperable  in  the  great  All,  it  must 
be  so  also  in  my  individual  life.  Let  us,  then,  break  our- 
selves of  the  folly  of  wishing  to  subjugate  our  senses  ! 
Let  us  obey  without  scruple  the  blind  power  before  which 
even  the  Divine  Majesty  itself  must  bow !  And  since  it 
must  be  so,  let  brute  nature  reign  in  the  lower  regions  of 
human  life  ! 

It  needs  no  great  effort  of  intelligence  to  understand  the 
logic  which,  from  the  principle  of  the  eternity  of  matter, 
deduces  practical  materialism,  the  excesses  of  sensuality,  and 
degradations  of  egoism.  This  is  the  fatal  extreme  to  which 
man  is  driven,  when  not  enlightened  by  the  revelation  of 
Jehovah.  The  picture  w^hich  S.  Paul  has  drawn  of  the  life 
of  the  nations  of  antiquity,  *  is  a  frightful  testimony  to  the 
irresistible  force  of  this  logical  and  moral  chain  of  conse- 
quences. 

Opposite  to  this  incline,  down  which  all  the  pagan 
nations,  ancient  and  modem,  are  step  by  step  descending, 
we  see  another,  up  which  one  nation,  one  alone,  is  glo- 
riously ascending;  which,  in  the  Person  of  its  last  and 
supreme  representative,  succeeds  at  last  in  realizing  the 
purest  spirituality,  absolute  holiness.  By  the  fruit  we  can 
recognize  the  tree,  or,  if  you  will,  the  root.  This  name 
Jehovah,  inscribed  by  Moses  in  letters  of  fire  on  the  Jewish 
consciousness  —  it  is  this  which  has  worked  this  prodigy. 
It  dissipated  for  Israel  the  seductive  charm  of  a  sensual 

*  Rom.  i. 


1 6  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

life,  and  secured  the  preponderance  of  spirit  over  matter. 
If  God  alone  exists,  and  matter  only  through  Him,  it  must 
be  entirely  subject  to  Him.  Man  is  no  more  a  slave  to  it 
than  God  Himself.  While  spelling  out  the  name  Jehovah 
man  has  recovered  the  knowledge  of  his  own  greatness. 
Made  in  the  image  of  this  absolute  Being,  of  this  pure 
Spirit,  he  can  and  he  must  become  like  Him  ;  and  hence- 
forth the  royal  road  is  opened  which  leads  from  Moses  up 
to  Jesus  Christ.  Holiness  is  no  longer  an  unattainable 
ideal ;  the  Kingdom  of  God,  instead  of  being  an  empty 
sound,  becomes  the  one  true  word  of  history.  God's  plan 
is  revealed  together  with  His  Name  Jehovah.  The  end 
and  aim  of  human  life,  both  individual  and  collective,  can 
only  be  the  dominion  of  the  Holy  Spirit  over  those  spirits 
who  have  freely  accepted  His  dominion.  A  Jew  of  our 
own  time  has  expressed  the  same  thought  in  these  words : 
"  The  eternity  of  matter  is  up  to  this  day  the  foundation  of 
the  pagan  idea.  This  principle  is  not  only  a  metaphysical 
falsehood  ;  it  is  the  denial  of  liberty  to  God  and  man,  a 
denial  which  makes  an  end  of  all  morality.  If  any  matter 
whatever  was  necessary  to  the  Creator,  He  could  not  have 
formed  a  world  absolutely  good,  but  only  the  best  world 
possible  ;  and  man  can  be  just  as  little  master  over  his  own 
body,  as  God  over  matter  ....  But  this  night  of  darkness 
and  of  gloom  which  overshadows  the  conception  of  God,  of 
the  world,  and  of  man,  is  dispersed  at  the  first  word  of 
Divine  revelation  :  '  i?i  the  beginning  God  created.''  Every- 
thing, substance  and  form,  came  into  being -at  the  fiat  of 
the  creative  will,  which  is  free  and  omnipotent.  And  as 
the  Creator  governs  the  world  freely.  He  can,  by  communi- 
cating to  man  a  spark  of  His  own  life,  grant  to  him  the 
dominion  over  his  own  bodv  and  its  forces.  The  created 
world  is  no  longer  only  the  best  that  was  possible,  but  the 
only  good  ....  Its  very  capacity  for  deterioration  belongs 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  ij 

to  its  perfection,  for  without  it  there  would  have  been  no 
moral  liberty  ....  And  the  same  God  who  has  assigned 
the  world  its  purpose  will  know  how  to  make  it  reach  its 
end,  by  means  of  the  same  free  will  by  which  He  created 
it."  * 

We  see,  then,  how  inevitably  the  preparation  of  the  sal- 
vation of  the  world  by  Israel  required  as  its  starting-point 
the  revelation  of  this  fundamental  verity,  "  I  am  that  I  am," 
to  which  the  natural  intelligence  of  mankind  could  not  of 
itself  attain.  Accordingly  God,  after  having  revealed  to 
Moses  this  sublime  idea,  inscribed  it  on  Mount  Sinai  at  the 
head  of  the  national  law :  "  I,  Jehovah,  am  thy  God.  "  f 
The  fulfilment  of  the  ancient  promises  made  to  Abraham 
by  El  Shaddai,  the  present  work  entrusted  to  the  ministry 
of  Moses,  the  future  salvation  of  mankind  to  be  effected  by 
Christ,  all  rested  definitively  upon  this  doctrine,  as  the 
entire  building,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  storey,  rests 
upon  the  foundation  laid  once  for  all. 

We  have  affirmed  the  reality  of  the  Mosaic  revelation, 
and  we  have  seen  the  necessity  there  was  for  it.  It  remains 
for  us  to  learn  in  what  for7n  it  was  to  be  clothed  in  order 
to  attain  its  end ;  which  was  to  make  intelligible  and  living 
to  the  Israelite  consciousness  this  idea  of  the  absolute  exist- 
ence of  God,  mysteriously  set  forth  under  the  Name  Jehovah. 
Was  God  to  make  of  this  dogma  of  the  Divine  self-existence 
and  the  creation  of  matter,  an  answer  in  a  catechism  which 
the  Israelitish  youth  would  have  to  learn  from  generation 
to  generation  ? 

But  we  know  too  well  how  feeble  is  the  barrier  which 
such  a  method  of  teaching  can  offer  to  the  torrents  of  error 
and  sin.  Especially  with  the  mass  of  mankind,  if  we  wish 
to  act  upon  their  will,  or  even  upon  their  mind,  it  is  not  to 

*  Der  Pentateuch  iibersetzt  und  erklart,  von  Raphael  Hirsch. 
t  ExoA  XX.  2. 


1 8  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

the  intelligence  only  that  we  must  address  ourselves,  but 
also  to  the  imagination  and  the  heart.  We  must  not  confine 
ourselves  to  teaching  truth,  we  must  also  picture  it.  Or 
instead  of  a  dogmatic  formula,  was  God  to  have  recourse 
to  scientific  demonstration, —  to  give  to  Moses,  and  through 
Moses  to  Israel,  a  lesson  on  the  origin  of  the  universe,  to 
construct  a  complete  and  consecutive  system  of  astronomy 
and  geology,  of  physics  and  chemistry,  of  botany  and 
zoology  ?  Such  a  method  would  have  had  the  double  dis- 
advantage of  at  the  same  time  making  science  useless  and 
faith  impossible.  What  would  be  the  use  of  study,  when 
the  revelation  of  all  things  had  been  made  once  for  all  by 
God  Himself  ?  And  suppose  Moses  had  descended  from 
Mount  Sinai,  not  only  with  the  tables  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, but  with  a  thoroughly  exact  and  complete  knowledge 
of  the  causes,  and  of  the  laws,  which  governed  the  formation 
of  the  universe,  —  as,  for  instance,  the  Copernican  system 
in  detail,  —  who  would  have  believed  so  incredible  a  revela- 
tion ?  The  power  of  sensible  phenomena,  the  authority  of  pre- 
vailing prejudices,  for  a  moment,  perhaps,  overcome,  would 
soon  have  regained  the  mastery,  and  this  inopportune 
revelation  would  have  gone  down  to  the  grave  with  him 
who  announced  it.  Faith  should  be  a  moral  act,  and  not 
merely  the  submission  of  the  intellect. 

There  remained  one  method,  that  of  which  God  made 
use  when  He  revealed  the  future  to  the  prophets.  What 
did  He  do,  for  instance,  in  order  to  give  Daniel  an  idea  of 
the  four  phases  through  which  the  history  of  mankind  was 
to  pass  before  the  coming  of  the  Messiah  ?  Did  He  give 
him  an  historical  lecture  upon  the  Assyrians,  the  Babylon- 
ians, the  Medes  and  Persians,  the  Greeks  and  Romans? 
No,  He  caused  to  pass  before  him  five  pictures,  or  images, 
of  which  the  remembrance  remained  indelible  :  a  winged 
lion,  symbol  of  the  Babylonish  power ;  a  bear,  with  slow 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  JQ 

and  heavy  tread,  emblem  of  the  Persian  majesty  ;  a  leopard 
with  four  heads,  traversing  the  earth  as  on  the  wing,  the 
visible  representation  of  the  Alexandrian  monarchy,  so 
rapidly  founded,  so  speedily  divided  into  four  distinct 
states ;  then,  lastly,  a  monster  with  nothing  corresponding 
to  him  in  the  terrestrial  creation,  trampling  and  devouring 
ever}'thing  that  comes  in  its  way,  image  of  the  Roman 
empire,  that  state  which  has  borne  no  resemblance  to  any- 
thing before  known,  and  which  absorbed  everything  into 
itself ;  and  finally,  as  the  last  of  these  apparitions,  the  form 
of  a  Son  of  Man  coming  upon  the  clouds,  emblem  of  the 
only  really  human  power,  of  the  love  which  comes  down 
from  heaven  to  found  here  below  the  kingdom  of  liberty 
and  of  truth.  This  is  the  manner  in  which  God  teaches 
history,  when  He  thinks  good  to  make  it  known  beforehand 
to  His  servants  the  prophets.  He  does  not  discuss,  He 
does  not  catechise.  He  pictures. 

This  method  has  the  double  advantage  of  making  its 
appeal  to  man  in  his  whole  being,  consequently  not  per- 
verting the  nature  of  faith,  and  of  not  rendering  science 
superfluous  by  anticipating  its  future  labors.  All  the 
researches  of  historians,  all  the  discoveries  of  the  investi- 
gators of  ruins  and  of  buried  palaces,  instead  of  being 
made  useless  by  such  revelation,  only  serve  to  make  more 
exact,  and  to  enrich  the  pictures  by  means  of  which  it  was 
accomplished. 

Why  should  not  God,  in  making  known  past  events  which 
no  eye  had  seen,  have  adopted  the  same  method  .''  Why 
should  He  not  have  brought  before  the  eyes  of  Moses  a 
series  of  pictures  summarizing  that  work,  into  the  principles 
of  which  He  wished  to  initiate  him  ?  By  causing  to  pass 
before  him  the  image  of  those  different  classes  of  beings, 
deified  by  paganism,  and  which  came  each  in  succession 
out  of  nothing  at  the  call  of  God,  did  He  not  give  to  His 


20  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

people  a  better  commentary  on  the  Name  Jehovah,  in  the 
sense  which  we  have  given  to  it,  than  He  could  have  done 
by  any  other  means  ?  When  we  wish  to  give  a  nation  an 
idea  of  some  great  victory  which  her  sons  have  gained,  we 
are  not  contented  with  a  mere  bulletin,  which  sums  it  up  in 
a  few  lines,  nor  do  we  have  recourse  to  a  learned  account 
of  the  strategic  reasons  for  it ;  but  we  employ  the  most 
eminent  artist  we  can  find,  and  ask  him  to  paint  two  or 
three  of  the  principal  scenes,  which  may  serv^e  as  samples 
of  thousands  of  others. 

Such,  as  it  appears  to  us,  was  the  nature  of  those  repre- 
sentations of  which  the  record  of  the  Creation  is  composed. 
We  are  told  *  that  during  the  forty  days  and  forty  nights 
which  Moses  passed  upon  the  mount,  God  showed  him  the 
model  of  the  tabernacle  which  he  would  soon  have  to  con- 
struct. Perhaps  at  the  same  time  it  was  granted  to  him 
to  contemplate  the  construction  of  that  grand  edifice  —  the 
Universe,  of  which  the  tabernacle  was  the  type.f 

The  pictures  which  God  caused  to  pass  before  him,  and 
of  which  he  has  preserved  to  us  in  the  Genesis  record  such 
admirable  photographs,  could  not  contradict  the  researches 
of  science.  Revelation  and  Science  are  two  rays  which 
proceed  from  different  sources,  the  one  from  heaven,  the 
other  from  earth,  but  which  in  combination  produce  perfect 
light.  The  one  pictures  to  us  the  idea  in  the  mind  of  the 
great  Worker,  the  other  brings  to  our  sight  the  concrete 
image  of  the  work.  Just  in  the  same  way  that  all  historical 
discoveries  only  serve  to  enrich  and  complete  the  prophetic 
pictures  of  Daniel,  so  the  discoveries  of  geology  find  in  the 
retrospective   pictures  of   Moses  a  frame   ready  fitted   to 

*  Heb.  viii.  5. 

t  The  outer  court,  the  holy  place,  and  the  holy  of  holies,  correspond  to  the 
earth,  the  heavens,  and  that  supreme  abode  where  God  more  immediately  mani- 
fests His  Presence. 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  2  1 

receive  them,  and  give  them  their  right  place.  The  Bible 
does  not  relieve  science  of  the  necessity  of  bringing  to  light 
the  immense  wealth  of  the  facts,  the  relations  of  cause  and 
effect,  the  means  employed  and  the  ends  aimed  at  which 
make  up  their  unity,  and  of  discovering  the  laws  which 
govern  them.  Science,  on  the  other  hand,  does  not  enable 
us  to  dispense  with  —  on  the  contrary,  it  demands  as 
necessary, —  that  Word  from  on  high  which  shall  convey 
to  us  the  real  meaning  of  this  magnificent  whole. 

It  is  most  important  to  seize  the  exact  point  of  converg- 
ence of  these  two  rays,  so  that  the  image  may  be  formed 
clear  and  complete  for  the  eye  of  human  intelligence.  This 
ideal  can  never  be  completely  realized  until  geology  on  the 
one  hand,  and  exegesis  on  the  other,  shall  have  finished 
their  work.  But  it  is  allowable  to  ascertain  the  amount 
of  reconciliation  already  reached,  and  to  tr}'  to  make  one 
step  further  on  the  path  which  leads  to  this  end. 


II. 
SCIENCE. 

We  must  confine  ourselves  to  summing  up  briefly  the 
results  which  seem  most  probable,  or  which  are  most  com- 
monly received,  of  modern  investigations  relating  to  the 
formation  of  the  globe  and  the  appearance  of  organized 
beings.  Science  brings  to  light,  as  it  seems  to  us,  ten  gen- 
eral phases  of  this  development.  We  will  first  briefly  in- 
dicate these,  and  then  endeavor  to  give  some  explanations 
on  these  points,  while  holding  ourselves  free  to  question 
the  truth  of  some  of  them. 

I.  These  principal  phases  appear  to  have  been  the  fol- 
lowins: :  — 


22  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

1.  The  primitive  gaseous  state,  and  the  formation  of  the 
solar  system. 

2.  The  condensation  of  the  gaseous  matter,  and  the  con- 
stitution of  the  globe. 

3.  The  disengagement  of  the  primeval  light. 

4.  The  formation  of  the  continents,  and  their  separation 
from  the  waters. 

5.  The  first  great  development  of  vegetable  life  on  the 
continents. 

6.  The  sun  becoming  visible  to  our  earth. 

7.  The  first  great  breaking  forth  of  animal  life. 

8.  The  second  great  manifestation  of  that  life. 

9.  The  apparition  of  man. 

10.  The  cessation  of  the  creative  work. 

We  will  develop  briefly  each  of  these  points. 

Science  commonly  accepts  the  theory  of  _La  Place,  ac- 
cording to  which  our  solar  system  —  and  one  may  even  say, 
the  universe  —  originated  in  a  gaseous  matter  of  extreme 
rarity  and  tenuity.  This  substance  must  have  been  anal- 
ogous to  that  of  the  nebulae  which  the  telescope  even  to  this 
day  discovers  in  the  profound  depths  of  the  firmament,  and 
which  are  probably  only  new  systems  in  process  of  forma- 
tion. By  means  of  the  rotator}^  movement  with  which  this 
matter  was  endowed,  or  which  had  been  impressed  upon  it, 
rings  were  successively  detached  from  the  equatorial  sur- 
face of  the  primitive  mass.  By  breaking  up,  and  then  fold- 
ing back  upon  themselves,  these  rings  would  become  so 
many  distinct  systems,  like  our  own  solar  system.  Within 
these  again  would  have  been  produced,  on  a  smaller  scale, 
the  same  phenomenon.  So  that  our  planets  would  be  only 
rings  successively  disengaged  from  the  central  mass,  and 
become  so  many  distinct  globes,  arranged  round  the  sun 
according  to  the  dates  at  which  they  were  severally  de- 
tached.    The  satellites  of   the    planets  would  themselves 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  23 

have  been  detached  from  them  by  the  same  process.  And 
Saturn's  ring  would,  according  to  this,  still  remain  as  a 
silent  witness  to  this  process  in  the  formation  of  the  worlds. 

This  would  explain,  at  the  same  time,  the  distinctness  of 
our  solar  system  from  the  universe  as  a  whole,  and  its 
internal  organization. 

This  gaseous  matter  was  in  an  incandescent  state,  as  is 
shown  by  all  the  facts  which  prove  that  our  earth  must  have 
been  formed  under  the  action  of  a  slow  and  gradual  cool- 
ing. Whence  arose  this  cooling  .'*  From  two  causes ;  on 
the  one  hand,  the  separation  of  the  earth  from  the  central 
mass  —  the  sun  ;  on  the  other,  the  radiation  of  part  of  its 
own  heat  into  the  surrounding  spaces. 

No  condensation  of  matter  could  have  taken  place  at  so 
high  a  temperature.  The  size  of  the  gaseous  globe  must 
consequently  have  been  infinitely  greater  than  that  of  the 
present  earth. 

This  theory  of  La  Place  on  the  formation  of  the  earth, 
presents,  on  reflection,  some  difficulties,  and  some  omis- 
sions. We  will  now  ask  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  these 
two  points. 

I.  Whence  arose  this  rotatory  movement  found  in  mat- 
ter ?  Was  it  inherent  in  its  essence  ?  Why,  in  this  case,  were 
not  its  effects  displayed  from  all  eternity .?  How  does  it 
come  to  pass  that  we  are  not  at  this  day  witnessing  the  suc- 
cession of  phenomena  which  have  resulted,  and  which  still 
result,  from  it  ?  If  the  cause  was  eternal,  it  would  seem 
that  the  effect  produced  must  be  eternal  also.  The  theory 
of  the  self-movement  of  matter  leads  logically  to  the  system 
of  absolute  immutability.  The  end  and  the  middle  must 
be  as  ancient  as  the  beginning.  Or,  shall  we  say  this  move- 
ment was  impressed  from  without  upon  matter  ?  Then  we 
should  have  to  point  out  the  agent  to  which  so  decisive  an 
intervention  is  due,  and  to  indicate  the  Hand  which  set  the 


24  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

universe  in  motion,  or  —  to  use  a   familiar  expression  — 
gave  it  2l  fillip. 

2.  As  in  each  particular  system,  after  the  successive  dis- 
engagements of  the  rings  which  formed  the  planets,  there 
remained  a  central  mass,  which  became  the  sun  of  that 
system,  so  it  would  seem,  it  must  have  been  with  the  uni- 
verse. We  should  have  to  find  in  the  celestial  spaces  a 
great  central  sun,  to  which  all  the  other  suns  would  stand 
in  the  relation  of  planets.  Science  has  not  yet  answered  to 
this  demand.  The  hypotheses  hitherto  proposed  have  not 
been  confirmed.  The  simultaneous  movement  of  the  stars 
seems  to  be  due  less  to  the  attraction  of  one  central  7naterial 
point  than  to  the  influence  of  the  reciprocal  attraction  of 
these  bodies,  one  upon  the  other. 

May  we  not  suppose  that,  like  the  organic  cell  which  ex- 
plains ever}thing  but  which  nothing  can  explain,  and  which 
possesses  in  itself  all  the  elements  of  its  life,  so  the  nebula,  or 
aggregation  of  cosmical  matter,  emanates  immediately  from 
the  creative  force,  with  its  rotator}^  movement  and  its  heat, 
containing  in  its  gaseous  mass  all  the  materials  of  its  future 
organization  ?  They  are  there  —  these  simple  elements, 
these  gases  and  metals,  just  as  the  vital  forces  exist  latent 
in  the  cell.  But  they  are  not  yet  there  as  stick.  They 
are  the  ultimate  atoms.  Condensation  alone,  resulting 
from  the  process  of  cooling,  will  make  them  emerge  from 
this  primitive  confusion. 

II.  Now  we  are  at  home.  Our  earth,  detached  from  the 
sun  and  distinct  from  the  other  planets,  forms  a  globe  by 
itself,  which  organizes  itself  henceforth  according  to  its  own 
laws.  The  cooling  process,  of  which  we  have  pointed  out 
the  causes,  begins,  and  with  it  the  work  of  condensation. 
One  part  of  the  materials  of  which  the  primitive  mass  is 
composed  passes  from  the  gaseous  into  the  liquid  state, 
but  boiling.     Then,  the  cooling  process  still  continuing,  a 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  25 

solid  crust  forms  itself  on  the  surface  of  the  liquid,  which 
may  be  compared  to  the  thin  skin  which  appears  on  the 
surface  of  boiling  milk  when  exposed  to  the  contact  of  cold 
air.  Here  we  have  the  beginning  of  that  ground  on  which 
W'e  live,  and  to  which  we  give  the  name  terra-firma. 

Below  this  solid  surface,  the  elements,  still  in  a  state  of 
fusion,  were  stratifying  themselves  in  the  order  of  their  dens- 
ity, the  heaviest  in  the  centre,  the  less  dense  in  superpo- 
sition above  each  other  up  to  the  surface. 

An  atmosphere  of  gaseous  matter  surrounded  the  globe 
thus  constituted.  But  it  was  entirely  different  from  our 
present  atmosphere.  For  it  contained,  in  a  state  of  vapor, 
a  number  of  elements  now  condensed  ;  first,  the  metals 
which  were  to  form  the  stratum  nearest  to  the  solid  enve- 
lope :  then  bodies  more  easily  vaporizable,  such  as  silica, 
lime,  sulphur ;  finally,  those  substances  which  are  still  more 
easily  volatilized,  such  as  the  enormous  mass  of  waters  which, 
together  with  the  gases  that  enter  into  their  composition, 
form  our  seas. 

The  floor  of  the  earth  at  this  time  had  not  become  quite 
solid.  Very  closely  submitted  to  the  action  of  the  internal 
furnace  and  of  the  gases  which  escaped  therefrom,  it  must 
have  been  often  agitated,  lifted  up,  rent  asunder,  engulfed 
by  that  fiery  sea,  from  the  action  of  whose  convulsions  it  is 
even  now,  in  spite  of  its  greater  thickness,  by  no  means 
altogether  freed.  Yet  by  the  continual  process  of  cooling, 
the  solidification  of  matter  was  going  on  both  within  and 
without  the  envelope.  Outside,  the  vapors,  by  condensing, 
formed  a  sea  saturated  with  all  kinds  of  materials,  which 
covered  this  fragile  floor  ;  and  on  the  inside,  the  crust  gath- 
ered bulk  by  the  condensation  of  those  substances  in  a  state 
of  fusion  which  were  the  nearest  to  it.  After  each  rending 
of  the  crust,  it  compacted  itself  together  again  with  greater 
solidity,  as  the  ranks  of  an  army  close  up  after  a  discharge 
of  artillery. 


26  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

What  was  the  earth  Hke  at  this  period  of  its  formation  ? 
It  must  have  been  an  immense  globe,  of  which  the  centre 
was  occupied  by  a  fiery  furnace  surrounded  by  three  en- 
velopes ;  the  first  solid, —  a  thin  crust ;  the  second  liquid, — 
a  sea  of  boiling  water ;  the  third  gaseous, —  an  ocean  of 
vapors.  The  earth  would,  at  this  time,  have  presented  to 
the  spectator  the  appearance  of  one  of  those  powerful 
locomotives  which  traverse  space,  carr}dng  within  them  a 
furnace,  and  provided  with  a  reservoir  for  water,  and  iron 
walls,  enveloped  in  an  atmosphere  charged  with  vapors. 

3.  All  this  violent  working  could  not  be  carried  on  with- 
out evoking  a  great  disengagement  of  electricity,  and,  con- 
sequently, of  light.  As  a  scientific  man  of  the  first  rank 
lately  wrote  to  us, —  one  whose  labors  have  placed  him  at 
the  very  head  of  this  department  of  science  :  "  There  could 
not  fail  to  be  a  light  produced  by  the  powerful  and 
numerous  chemical  processes  which  must  have  been  at  that 
time  in  operation  on  the  surface  of  the  earth ;  processes 
which  engender  electricit}',  and  Call  forth  luminous  vibra- 
tions In  the  ether." 

The  aurora  borealis  is,  perhaps,  in  our  day,  the  phe- 
nomenon best  fitted  to  give  us  an  idea  of  this  electric  light, 
independent  of  the  action  of  the  sun. 

The  admirable  experiments  by  which  M.  de  la  Rive  has 
succeeded  in  producing,  on  a  small  scale,  in  his  laboratory, 
all  the  phenomena  of  the  aurora  borealis  are  well  known. 
It  seems  to  be  demonstrated  by  these  experiments,  that 
these  magnificent  appearances  are  only  the  result  of  the 
neutralization,  in  the  polar  regions,  of  the  two  opposing 
currents  of  electricity.  The  principal  source  of  all  this 
mass  of  electricity  is  the  contact  which  takes  place,  at  the 
bottom  of  the  ocean,  between  the  water  of  the  sea  and  the 
internal  fire  of  the  globe,  and  which  occurs  especially  near 
the    equator.     Two    currents    are    formed    and    directed 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  2/ 

toward%  the  poles,  one  travelling  underground,  the  other 
by  the  vapors  which  rise  from  the  sea,  and  by  way  of  the 
atmosphere.  The  aurora  borealis  is  the  method  of  their 
neutralization. 

If,  in  the  present  state  of  the  world,  things  of  this  kind 
take  place,  let  us  imagine  the  time  when  the  sea  was  only 
separated  from  the  subterranean  fire  by  a  thin  and  fragile 
partition,  and  when,  consequently,  the  communications 
between  the  two  elements  must  have  been  much  more  fre- 
quent and  more  abundant  than  they  are  now.  It  is  easy  to 
form  an  idea  of  the  incomparably  greater  and  more  powerful 
disengagement  of  electricity  which  must  have  taken  place 
under  those  conditions,  and  consequently  of  the  splendor 
and  frequency  of  those  luminous  appearances,  which  more  or 
less  periodically  dispersed  the  darkness  which  reigned  on 
the  earth ;  all  the  more  so  since,  as  the  author  I  have  just 
quoted  adds,  "  because  of  the  elevation  and  uniformity  of 
the  temperature,"  these  luminous  appearances  "  would  not 
have  been  confined  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  poles,  but 
would  have  formed  a  kind  of  atmospheric  aureole  round 
the  whole  globe." 

As  the  process  of  cooling  continued,  the  volatilized 
substances  which  enveloped  the  globe  were  successively 
condensed ;  the  densest  first,  and  these  must  certainly 
have  been  the  metallic  vapors.  Other  lighter  materials, 
such  as  aqueous  vapors,  which  occupied  the  higher  reo-ions 
of  space,  were  then  condensed  by  contact  with  the  colder 
regions,  and  formed  a  canopy  of  clouds,  floating  at  a  certain 
height  above  the  globe.  In  the  intervening  space  between 
this  aerial  ocean  driven  by  the  winds,  and  the  liquid  plain 
which  formed  nearly  the  whole  of  the  terrestrial  surface, 
and  which  was  kept  in  a  boiling  state  by  the  emanations 
from  the  internal  furnace,  was  spread  the  atmosphere, 
such  as  we  now  have  it,  a  stratum  of  respirable  air,  which 


28  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

had  become  more  and  more  free  from  all  the  materials 
with  which  it  had  been  until  then  saturated. 

4.  The  floating  masses,  more  or  less  solid,  which  had 
formed  themselves  on  the  surface  of  the  fused  coagulated 
sea  of  fire,  had  combined  themselves  into  one  continuous 
pavement.  This  first  layer  of  the  earth's  crust  had,  by  the 
increasing  condensation  of  vapor,  become  entirely  covered 
with  water.  The  globe  presented  the  appearance  of  an 
immense  sea.  Only  a  few  solitar}'  peaks  and  domes  of 
granite  raised  their  heads  here  and  there  above  the  surface 
of  this  boundless  ocean.  These  were  the  first  rudiments 
of  our  continents.  But  the  rocks  which  emersred  were  soon 
no  longer  completely  bare  ;  their  first  clothing  was  a  stratum 
of  sedimentary  deposits.  Whence  arose  these  deposits  ? 
From  the  debris  of  the  first-formed  rocks,  which  had  been 
rapidly  dissolved  or  worn  away  by  the  hot  waters  of  this 
primitive  sea.  These,  the  most  ancient  stratified  rocks,  are 
still  to  be  seen  in  several  places  in  Europe  and  America, 
wherever,  not  having  been  covered  at  a  later  age  by  the  sea, 
they  have  not  become  the  ground  on  which  more  recent 
strata  have  been  deposited.  They  may  be  known  by  the 
absence  of  all  remains  of  vegetable  or  animal  life  preser^^ed 
within  them.  These  are  the  monuments  of  the  time  when 
no  organized  being  existed  upon  our  globe.  And,  indeed, 
how  could  the  evolution  of  life  under  any  form  have  borne 
the  degree  of  heat  which  then  prevailed,  or  the  physical 
and  chemical  conditions  of  such  a  state  of  things  ? 

But  we  are  soon  brought  face  to  face  with  a  new  and 
most  important  phenomenon.  The  fossils  enclosed  in  the 
latter  stratified  rocks  reveal  to  us  the  first  appearance  of 
organic  life  on  our  globe.  These  were  principally  vege- 
tables,—  algae,  and  some  other  species  of  marine  plants  ; 
then  also  some  species  belonging  to  the  animal  kingdom, — 
crustaceans  and  molluscs,   some   kinds   of  echini,  corals, 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  29 

or  bivalves,  humble  pioneers  of  life  upon  this  stage  of  the 
world.  This  fact  puts  to  science  the  most  formidable 
question  which  she  can  ever  have  to  answer,  that  of  the 
origin  of  organized  life. 

All  life,  vegetable  or  animal,  has  for  its  starting-point  the 
organic  cell ;  that  is  a  fact  which  no  man  of  science  now 
disputes.  But  whence  comes  the  cell  itself  ?  Is  it  the 
result  of  some  happy  combination  of  the  elements  of 
inorganic  matter?  or  is  it  a  sudden  apparition  in  the 
midst  of  this,—  a  phenomenon  entirely  inexplicable  without 
the  act  of  a  creator  ? 

The  beautiful  experiments  of  MM.  Pasteur,  Pouchet  and 
Bastian  are  well  known.  The  result  of  their  labors  has 
been  recently  formulated  by  the  President  of  the  Naturalist 
Society  in  England,  Sir  William  Thomson,  in  his  opening 
address  to  the  assembly  at  Edinburgh  (187 1).     These  are 

his  words :  — 

"  A  very  ancient  way  of  thinking,  to  which  many  natural- 
ists   still    hold   fast,    admits    that    by   means    of    certain 
meteorological  conditions,  different  from  the  present,  inani- 
mate matter  may  have  cr^^stallized  or  fermented  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  produce  living  germs,  or  organic  cells,  or 
protoplasms.     But  science  affords  us  a  number  of  inductive 
proofs  against  this  hypothesis  of  spontaneous  generation,  as 
you  have  already  heard  from  my  predecessor  in  this  chair 
(Mr.  Huxley).     A  minute  examination  has  not,  up  to  this 
time,  discovered  any  power  capable  of  originating  life  but 
life  itself.     Inanimate  matter  cannot  become  living  except 
under  the  influence  of  matter  already  living.     This  is  a 
fact  in  science  which  seems  to  me  as  well  ascertained  as 
the  law  of  gravitation  ....  And  I  am  ready  to  accept  as 
an  article  of  faith  in  science,  valid  for  all  time  and  in  all 

space,    THAT    LIFE    IS    PRODUCED    BY    LIFE,    AND    ONLY    BY 


LIFE." 


30  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

If,  as  a  consequence  of  this  candid  and  weighty  declara- 
tion, the  author  supposes  that  the  first  germs  of  organic  Hfe 
may  have  reached  our  globe  by  means  of  aerolites  which 
should  have  imported  them  from  higher  spheres,  few  readers 
would  not  smile  at  such  a  solution  of  the  difficulty.  Who 
would  not  say  that  such  a  solution,  even  supposing  that  the 
observed  facts  were  in  its  favor  (which  they  are  not),  is  not 
really  a  solution  at  all ;  that  the  main  difficulty  is  only 
removed  a  step  further  back,  since  we  should  still  have  to 
explain  the  first  appearance  of  life  in  these  globes  from 
which  the  aerolites  are  supposed  to  have  come  ? 

Might  we  not  rather  admit  that,  since  the  Creator  has 
caused  primitive  matter  to  come  into  existence,  not  as  one 
uniform  substance,  but  composed  of  a  certain  number  of 
irreducible  elements,  or  "  siitiple  bodies,^''  which,  entering  into 
the  composition  of  the  nebulas,  at  once  develop  their 
various  properties,  he  may  also  have  endowed  it  from  the 
beginning  with  a  certain  number  of  organic  cells,  contain- 
ing within  themselves  the  latent  principles  of  the  fundamen- 
tal forms  of  life,  and  destined  to  develop  themselves  in 
many  various  directions,  as  circumstances  favored  this 
evolution. 

5.  Earthquakes  and  contortions  of  the  earth's  crust  became 
more  frequent.  On  the  one  hand,  the  interior  mass,  dimin- 
ishing in  bulk  as  it  condensed,  the  solid  envelope,  being 
no  longer  sufficiently  supported  from  below,  either  C7'iimpled 
itself  or  gave  way  and  sank.  On  the  other  hand,  the  sub- 
terranean fire  continued  to  act  upon  it,  and  to  split  it  into 
fissures.  The  mass  of  condensed  vapors  became  continually 
greater ;  the  quantity  of  water  was  always  on  the  increase. 
Substances  held  in  suspension  were  deposited  in  abundance 
on  the  sea-bottom  ;  then  they  were  brought  up  again,  borne 
upon  their  granite  pavement.  It  is  in  the  midst  of  these  new 
settlements  that  we    come    upon    traces  of  the  first  girat 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  3 1 

evolution  of  organic  life,  —  the  relics  of  the  carboniferous 
flora.     Every  one  knows  that  our  industry  is  mainly  sus- 
tained by  the  enormous  deposits  of  coal  contained  in  certain 
strata  of  the  earth's  crust.     It  was  at  the  period  of  which 
we  are  now  speaking  that  these  masses  were  deposited.     It 
was  then  that  that  flora  of  luxuriant  abundance  developed 
itself,  of  which  we  are  even  now  reaping  the  fruits.     It  im- 
presses us  not  so  much  by  the  varieties  of   species  or  the 
richness  of  its  coloring,  as  by  the  grandeur  of  its  proportions. 
The  coal-beds  do  not  contain  more    than  800  species  of 
plants,  instead  of  the  80,000  to  100,000  of  which  our  pres- 
ent flora  is  composed.    But  of  what  enormous  size  !   Gras;;es, 
of  kinds  which  are  now  but  small  marsh  plants,  attained  to 
the  thickness  of  a  man's  body,  and  to  a  height  of  60  or 
70  feet :  mosses  and  ferns  in  the  same  proportion  relatively 
to  the  corresponding  plants  in  the  present  state  of  things ; 
but  there  was  not  one  flower  of  brilliant  color,  not  one  fruit- 
bearing  tree.     This  carboniferous  flora  had  no  adornment 
but  its  verdure.     What  conclusion  can  w^e  draw  from  this, 
but  that  the  sun's  light  at  that  time  only  reached  our  globe 
through  a  thick  veil,  and  that  this  vegetation  owed  its  power 
less  to  this  solar  heat  than  to  that  which  came  forth  from 
the  earth  itself  ?     Accordingly,  the  carboniferous  flora  was 
spread  uniformly  over  the  whole  globe.     There  was  at  that 
time  neither  torrid  nor  frigid  zone.     The  difl^erence  of  cli- 
mates, which  is  caused  by  the  different  degrees  of  incli- 
nation of  the  sun's  rays  to  the  earth's  surface,  did  not  as 

yet  exist. 

But  how,  it  will  be  asked,  could  such  a  vegetation  thrive 
without  the  action  of  the  sun's  rays  ?  Recent  experiments 
have  completely  solved  this  difficulty.  It  has  now  been 
proved  that  electric  light  possesses  all  the  qualities  needed 
for  the  development  of  the  green  parts  of  plants.  M.  Fam- 
inzin,  in  all  his  experiments  upon  algae,  has  never  made  use 


32  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

of  any  light  but  that  of  a  gas  lamp."*  The  author  whom 
we  have  already  twice  quoted,  also  declares  that  electric 
light  possesses,  equally  with  the  light  of  the  sun,  "  all  prop- 
erties essential  to  vegetation." 

The  flora  of  the  carboniferous  strata  must  have  displayed 
itself  through  long  ages  on  the  surface  of  the  globe.  It  has 
been  calculated  that  some  coal-beds  must  have  required  from 
700  to  800  years  to  form  themselves,  and  as  they  often 
stratify  themselves  one  over  the  other  to  a  very  great  height, 
there  are  some  carboniferous  rocks,  the  formation  of  which, 
taken  all  together,  must  have  required  no  less  than  nine 
millions  of  years.  We  may  picture  to  ourselves  this  long 
period  as  a  series  of  hot,  damp  days,  like  those  in  which 
agriculturists  delight  in  the  spring,  at  the  time  of  the 
development  of  the  young  shoots.  Imagine  a  greenhouse 
heated  to  a  high  degree,  its  glass  walls  blackened  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  intercept  the  sun's  rays,  and  of  which  the 
principal  light  should  be  that  of  an  electric  flame ;  what 
would  be  the  products  of  the  vegetation  under  such  con- 
ditions ?  Colossal  plants,  but  without  brilliant  coloring ; 
gigantic  forms  of  greenish  hue.  Such  was  the  carboniferous 
vegetation. 

6.  At  this  period  there  was,  as  it  were,  a  pause  in  the 
development  of  organic  life.  The  strata  immediately  above 
the  carboniferous  deposits  prove  that  the  world  was,  to  a 
singular  degree,  stripped  of  animal  and  vegetable  life. 
"  Compared  to  the  wealth  of  the  carboniferous  period,"  says 
the  botanist  Karl  Muller,t  "  this  new  creation  is  infinitely 
poor."  The  great  evolution  of  vegetable  life  is  on  the 
decline,  and  animal  life  has  not  yet  taken  its  mighty  spring. 

The  ages  following  witnessed  a  slow  but  total  transfor- 
mation in  the  kingdom  of  plants.     "Then,"  says  the  same 

*  Kerasin-lampe, — Der  Naturforscher,  1871,  No.  4. 

t  Les  merveilles  du  monde  vegetal  (translation),  vol.  i.,  p.  133. 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  33 

author,  "began  the  transition  between  the  carboniferous 
vegetation  and  the  new  plant  world."     This  new  evolution 
of  vegetable  life  extends  throughout  the  triassic,  Jurassic, 
and  cretaceous  eras,  up  to  the  tertiary  period  (molassic,) 
when  it  reaches  its  completeness.     It  was  brought  about 
under  the  influence  of  different  agents.     But  the  principal 
one  which  we  have  to  mentign  here  was  the  direct  influence 
of  the  sun's  rays,  which  seem  from  this  time  to  have  acted 
powerfully  upon  the  earth.     In  speaking  of  the  tertiary  flora 
and  of  the  immense  progress  seen  in  it,  M.  Miiller  says ;  "  1 
believe  we  must  attribute   this   result   to    the  solar   light 
which  by  the  help  of  the  transformation  of  an  insular  cli- 
mate —  misty,  cloudy  and  dark  —  into  a  continental  climate, 
was  enabled  to  penetrate  more  freely  and  to  act  with  greater 
intensity.     Beneath  a  tropical  sun,  vegetable  life  takes  new 
developments  with  much  greater  power  than  under  a  north- 
ern and  veiled  sun.  .  .  .  It  was,  then,  in  the  tertiar>' period 
alone  that  the  more  graceful  flowers  made  their  appearance, 
faithful  reflections  of  the  new  era,  of  its  azure  sky,  and  its 
radiant  sun.  "  * 

As  this  transformation  of  vegetation  was  gradual,  and, 
according  to  M.  Miiller  himself,  began  in  the  ages  which 
followed  the  carboniferous  period,  we  have  in  this  fact  a 
most  important  revelation  of  the  part  which  the  sun  be^an 
to  play,  at  the  end  of  the  carboniferous  era,  in  the  devel- 
opment of  life  on  our  planet.  The  thick  covering  of  clouds 
which  had  veiled  the  lamp  of  day  during  the  preceding 
ages  had  been  torn  asunder ;  its  rays  had  now  free  access 
to  the  earth  ;  henceforward  it  shone  regularly  upon  our  globe. 
And  it  is  this  great  painter  of  Nature  who,  from  this  time 
using  his  brushes  freely  here  below,  is  to  begin  to  clothe 
the  plants,  the  children  of  the  light,  with  those  brilliant 
colors  which  had  hitherto  been  wanting  to  them. 

*  Miiller,  pp.  163,  164. 


34  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

7.  The  carboniferous  vegetation  had  done  a  great  ser- 
vice to  the  earth.  It  had  absorbed  an  enormous  quantity  of 
carbonic  acid,  which  it  had  converted  into  fuel,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  purifying  the  atmosphere  from  that  ingredi- 
ent so  injurious  to  animal  life.  It  had  thus  prepared  the 
way  for  the  first  great  outbreak  of  this  latter  form  of  life. 
The  masses  of  rock  which  formed  the  mighty  layers  of  the 
Jurassic  and  cretaceous  strata  are  the  sepulchres  of  an 
innumerable  animal  population.  They  are  not  only  the 
work  of  mvriads  of  these  livins:  creatures,  but  these  colossal 
:stratifications,  lifted  later  on  in  time  into  the  light,  are 
entirely  composed  of  their  remains.  Ehrenberg  has  counted 
up  as  many  as  ten  million  minute  shells  in  one  single  pound 
of  chalk  ;  and,  as  Mr.  Alfred  Maury  says,  the  soldier,  when 
he  cleans  his  helmet  with  a  cubic  inch  of  tripoli,  has  in  his 
hands  no  less  than  forty-one  millions  of  animalcules ;  at 
ever}'  rub  he  pulverizes  from  ten  to  twelve  millions  of  fossil 
animals. 

But  in  these  masses  of  rock  lie  buried  also  the  remains 
vof  other  animal  populations,  both  marine  and  amphibious. 

By  the  side  of  the  corals  and  the  infusoria,  those  innu- 
Tnerable  prolific  creatures  who  filled  the  ocean  and  labored 
unceasingly  to  form  this  ground  upon  which  we  are  now 
ourselves  working,  there  lived  already,  in  the  Jurassic  and 
cretaceous  eras,  some  species  of  a  higher  order,  the  ''petite 
bourgeoisie''  oi  the  time,  more  particularly  represented  by 
those  wonderful  molluscs  which  bear  the  name  of  ammon- 
ites, belemnites,  etc.  Higher  still  in  the  scale  of  animals, 
there  crawled  by  the  banks  of  the  oceans  and  rivers, 
multitudes  of  tortoises  and  lizards,  the  "  higher  gentry  "  of 
the  time.  At  last  came  the  "  aristocracy  "  of  this  middle 
age  of  Nature,  who  preyed  upon  these  "lower  orders,"  and 
made  war  amongst  them.  These  were  gigantic  reptiles, 
armed  with   terrible  weapons   for  attack.     Such  was   the 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  35 

plesiosauriis,  a  lizard  forty  feet  long,  with  a  head  like  a 
serpent,  and  a  jaw  six  feet  long,  a  swan's  neck  from  fifteen 
to  twenty  feet  long,  a  body  provided  with  four  paws  in  the 
shape  of  paddles,  like  those  of  the  wheels  in  our  steam- 
vessels,  which  it  used  as  oars,  and  with  a  thick  tail,  shorter 
than  that  of  a  crocodile,  for  a  rudder.  Then  the  ichthyosaurus, 
thirty  feet  long,  with  a  slender  ^nout  like  a'  dolphin,  its  jaws 
armed  with  one  hundred  and  eighty  teeth,  preying,  as  is 
proved  by  the  remains  found  inside  its  body,  not  only  upon 
tortoises  and  molluscs,  but  upon  creatures  of  its  own  kind. 
Then  a  still  stranger  creature,  the  pterodactyl,  a  real  flying 
dragon,  like  those  of  the  dreams  of  our  superstitious  fore- 
fathers, which  to  an  elongated  beak-like  snout,  crocodile 
teeth,  and  tiger-like  claws,  added  wings  like  those  of  a  bat. 
There  were  some  of  all  sizes,  from  that  of  a  canary  bird  to 
an  eagle.  One  has  been  found  in  England,  whose  extended 
wings  measured  no  less  than  twenty  feet  across,  while  those 
of  the  great  Alpine  eagle  do  not  exceed  eleven  feet.  Later 
on  we  come  to  the  megalosaurus,  whose  gigantic  body,  fifty 
feet  long,  lifted  itself  to  a  greater  height  above  the  sea 
than  the  elephant  does  above  the  ground.  "  Its  teeth," 
says  Figuier,  "  combine  the  characteristics  of  a  sword,  a 
knife,  and  a  saw."  Notice  again  the  iguanodoii,  the  most 
colossal  of  the  saurians,  remarkable  for  its  nasal  horn  ;  this 
was  an  herbivorous  animal. 

It  is  also  to  the  beginning  of  this  saurian  era  that  we  trace 
the  first  appearance  of  birds.  It  is  believed  that  in  the 
same  strata,  footprints  of  gigantic  wading  birds,  and  fossils 
of  great  birds  of  the  ostrich  kind  are  to  be  found.  But  up 
to  this  time,  with  the  exception  of  a  tiny  insectivorous 
rodent,  and  later  on  (in  the  chalk)  a  kind  of  opossum,  no 
mammal  nor  any  terrestrial  animal,  properly  so  called, 
makes  its  appearance. 

8.   The  race  of  amphibious  monsters  dies  out  by  degrees 


36  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

at  the  close  of  the  Jurassic  and  cretaceous  formations. 
Deposits  of  an  entirely  new  sort  soon  covered  all  that  part 
of  those  strata  which  lay  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  These 
are  the  molassic  beds  which  form  so  large  a  part  of  our 
present  soil,  and  in  which  are  preserved  the  remains  of  a 
whole  new  creation  of  animal  life.  Terrestrial  animals, 
quadrupeds  small  and  great,  and  domestic  animals,  at  last 
make  their  appearance.  This  is  the  era  when  the  dmothe- 
riu77i,  a  species  of  seal  or  elephant,  armed  with  two  hooked 
tusks  under  the  lower  jaw,  grubs  in  the  earth  to  dig  up  the 
roots  and  bulbs  on  which  he  feeds ;  when  the  aquatic 
salamander,  six  feet  long  (whose  remains  were  for  a 
long  time  mistaken  for  a  human  skeleton),  peoples  the 
bays  of  the  continents ;  when  the  massive  megatherium^ 
and  the  mylodon,  slightly  smaller  —  both  species  of  the  ai 
or  sloth  —  with  snout-like  muzzles  and  enormous  claws, 
grub  in  the  earth,  or  crawl  upon  the  trees ;  when  finally,  as 
the  king  of  that  age,  the  gigantic  elephant  of  America,  the 
mastodon,  with  a  body  longer  than  that  of  the  present 
elephant,  and  thicker  limbs,  feeding  upon  roots  and  other 
vegetables,  prowls  by  the  side  of  the  rivers  in  the  marshy 
lands.  At  this  time  also  the  first  species  of  monkeys  came 
into  being. 

A  little  later,  at  the  period  of  transition  between  the 
tertiary  and  the  modern  age,  animal  life,  although  still 
different  from  that  of  our  own  time,  continues  to  assume 
more  and  more  of  its  characteristics.  This  is  the  age  of 
the  mam77ioth,  another  elephant,  with  long  spiral  tusks  bent 
backwards,  pendent  ears  tufted  with  hair,  and  a  long  black 
mane.  The  specimen  of  this  creature  found  at  the  mouth 
of  one  of  the  rivers  of  Siberia  in  a  mass  of  ice,  in  which  it 
had  been  imprisoned,  exhibited  its  flesh  and  hair  in  perfect 
preservation,  and  the  contents  of  its  stomach  bore  evidence 
to  its  favorite  food,  the  leaves  of  the  Siberian  meleze.     The 


THE   SIX   DAYS    OF    CREATION.  IJ 

primeval  massive-headed  ox  then  inhabited  the  prairies. 
The  hippopotamus  and  two-horned  rhinoceros,  the  great 
elk,  with  his  magnificently  spreading  antlers  of  which  the 
two  extremities  were  some  ten  feet  apart,  the  cave-bear, 
troops  of  lions,  tigers,  hyenas,  tapirs,  peopled  the  forests 
and  the  plains. 

9.  Man  did  not  yet  exist ;  but  all  these  forms,  becoming 
more  and  more  like  those  known  to  us,  announce  that  his 
arrival  upon  the  scene  is  not  far  off.  In  fact,  the  era  of 
those  great  mammals,  of  whom  we  have  just  given  an  idea, 
leads  us  up  to  that  solemn  moment  when  this  visible  king 
of  Nature  made  his  appearance  upon  his  domain.  The 
first  traces  of  his  presence  which  have  been  discovered 
place  his  arrival  at  the  end  of  the  period  when  the  gigantic 
quadrupeds  buried  themselves  in  those  beds  of  mud  or 
of  ice  in  which  they  have  been  preserved  for  us. 

With  man  appear  the  first  traces  of  intelligent  activity  — 
of  industry.  Tools  of  different  kinds,  made  evidently  for 
2i  purpose,  announce  the  presence  of  Intelligence  and  of 
Liberty  on  this  earthly  stage.  A  new  world  opens  itself, 
as  that  of  Nature  closes.  The  being  whose  creation  was 
the  goal  and  aim  of  all  the  work  that  had  preceded  —  whose 
bodily  organization  had  been  the  standard  and  rule  for  all 
those  anterior  to  him,  the  model  to  which  they  had  gradually 
approached  *  —  has  now  appeared  ;  History  —  the  develop- 
ment of  a  free  being  —  begins. 

10.  One  fact,  remarkable  above  the  rest  in  the  history 
of  Nature,  clearly  signalized  this  appearance  of  man  as  the 
intended  end  oi  all  the  development  of  which  we  have  just 
sketched  a  picture ;  that  is,  the  cessation  of  all  production 
of  new  species  in  the  field  of  vegetable  or  animal  life,  from 
the  moment  of  the  creation  of  man.    The  efforts  of  Nature 

*  K.  Miiller  :  "  The  creation  of  the  first  vegetable  cell  is  the  first  step 
towards  the  future  creation  of  man." 


38  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

seem  to  cease,  and  her  productiveness  to  be  exhausted. 
Thenceforward  there  is  no  further  development  of  vegeta- 
ble life  except  by  cultivation  and  grafting ;  nor  of  animal 
life  but  by  training  and  education.  Nature  seems  to  have 
yielded  her  sceptre  to  man,  who  not  only  sees  no  new  crea- 
ture arrive  upon  the  scene  superior  to  himself  or  who  could 
be  his  rival,  but  who  gradually  extends  his  power  over  all 
those  whom  Nature  had  produced  before  him.  The  world 
may  be  compared  to  a  country-house  which  a  mother's  lov- 
ing hand  had  built,  ornamented  and  furnished,  in  prospect 
of  the  expected  arrival  of  her  beloved  son.  Man,  the  being 
thus  expected,  has  no  sooner  appeared  than  all  creatures 
throughout  Nature  hasten  to  pay  him  their  tribute,  and  ren- 
der homage  to  him  as  their  lord. 


III. 
THE   TWO    COMPARED. 

Having  now  set  forth  the  general  results  of  the  study  of 
geology  with  regard  to  the  general  question  before  us,  let 
us  look  at  the  picture  drawn  by  Moses,  and  note  the  points 
upon  which  it  seems  to  diverge  from,  and  those  upon  which 
there  is  no  difficulty  in  harmonizing  it  with,  these  scientific 
deductions. 

Every  one  knows  the  story  of  the  Creation  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis.  Nevertheless,  it  may  be  well  to 
summarize  it  here,  in  order  to  indicate  its  gradual  progress, 
and  to  observe  carefully  its  tendency. 

Moses  begins  by  a  word  of  a  general  character,  and  which 
comprehends  in  itself  all  that  follows  :  "  In  the  beginning 
God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth."  This  verse,  how- 
ever is  not  a  mere  heading  of  a  chapter ;  it  indicates  also  an 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  39 

actual  fact.  The  proper  meaning  of  the  word  "  to  create  " 
(barah)  is  to  cause  that  which  existed  only  in  the  inner  to 
pass  into  the  outer  world,  —  to  give  objective  existence  to 
that  which  had  before  been  only  present  to  the  mind.  * 
This  word  created  marks,  then,  in  all  cases  the  fundamen- 
tal act,  the  preliminary  condition  of  all  that  follows ;  the 
production  of  primeval  and  universal  matter,  out  of  which 
have  been  formed,  by  means  of  successive  steps  of  organi- 
zation, both  the  heavens  and  the  earth. 

Immediately  after  this  general  statement,  the  narrative 
takes  leave  of  the  subject  of  the  heavens ;  the  creation  of 
which  must  certainly,  in  the  mind  of  the  author,  have  taken 
place  simultaneously  with  the  work  to  be  accomplished  on 
the  earth.  If  he  speaks  again,  later  on,  of  the  heavens, 
it  is  not  till  the  fourth  day,  when  their  organization  has  been 
completed,  and  they  have  entered  into  their  normal  relations 
with  the  earth  and  the  living  creatures  upon  it.  It  is  from 
this  point  of  view  only  that  such  a  narrative  could  be  con- 
cerned with  them  ;  for  it  does  not  include  any  system  of 
cosmogony ;  it  is  always  man  whom  it  keeps  in  view. 

Here,  then,  we  have,  in  the  first  place,  a  denial  of  the 
independent  existence  of  Matter,  which  all  the  systems  of 
antiquity  made  to  co-exist  eternally  with  the  Deity,  and 
which,  as  an  obstacle  not  to  be  overcome,  hindered  all  the 
efforts  both  of  God  and  man  for  realizing  the  perfect  good. 

After  the  second  verse,  it  is  of  the  earth,  and  of  the 
earth  only,  that  the  narrative  speaks.  The  earth  did 
exist,  but  in  the  form  of  chaos  {tohoii  vabahoii).  This 
expression  does  not  mean  a  state  of  disorder  and  confu- 
sion, but  that  state  of  primitive  matter  in  which  no  crea- 
ture had  as  vet  a  distinctive  existence,  and  no  one  element 
stood  out  in  contradistinction  with  others,  but  all  the  forces 
and   properties  of  matter   existed,  as  it  were,  undivided. 

*  See  Raphael  Hirsch,  Der  Pentateuch,  vol.  i.,  p.  4. 


40  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

The  materials  were,  indeed,  all  there,  but  not  as  such,  — 
they  were  only  latent.  However,  the  Creative  spirit,  the 
principle  of  order  and  life,  brooded  over  this  matter,  which, 
like  a  rich  organic  cell,  comprehended  in  itself  the  condi- 
tions, and,  up  to  a  certain  point,  the  elementary  principles 
of  all  future  forms  of  existence.  This  Spirit  was  the  efficient 
cause,  not  of  matter  itself,  but  of  its  organization,  which 
was  then  to  begin.  He  was  the  executant  of  each  of  those 
Divine  commands  which  from  this  time  were  to  succeed 
each  other,  stroke  after  stroke,  till  this  chaos  should  be 
transformed  into  a  world  of  wonders.  By  the  "  waters  " 
upon  which  this  Divine  virtue  is  said  to  have  moved,  must 
be  meant  either  cosmical  matter  in  its  primitive  and  gaseous 
state  (the  Hebrew  has  no  special  word  by  which  to  express 
a  gas),  or  else  the  sea,  properly  so  called,  which  already, 
like  a  vast  sheet,  enveloped  the  whole  globe. 

The  work  of  the  first  three  days  consists  only  in  prepar- 
ing the  stage  upon  which  Life  was  to  appear  and  to  exhibit 
itself.  That  of  the  last  three  will  be  the  appearance  and 
development  of  life  itself  —  that  is,  of  life  properly  so  called, 
animal  and  human  life.  On  the  first  day,  darkness  gives 
way  to  light ;  on  the  second,  the  waters  to  respirable  air ; 
on  the  third,  the  universal  sea  to  dry  land.  These  are  the 
three  necessary  preliminary  conditions  for  the  appearance 
of  vegetation,  which  crowns  the  work  of  the  third  day,  and 
opens  the  way  for  animal  life. 

The  first  "  God  said''  produces  Light.  The  mention  of 
this  Divine  command  is  sufficient  to  make  the  reader  under- 
stand that  this  element,  which  was  an  object  of  worship  to 
so  many  oriental  nations,  is  neither  an  eternal  principle 
nor  the  product  of  blind  force,  but  the  work  of  a  free  and 
intelligent  will.  It  is  this  same  thought  which  is  expressed 
in  the  division  of  the  work  of  creation  into  six  days  and  six 
nights.     The  Creation  is  thus  represented  under  the  image 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  4 1 

of  a  week  of  work,  during  which  an  active  and  intelligent 
workman  pursues  his  task,  through  a  series  of  phases,  grad- 
uated with  skill  and  calculated  with  certainty,  in  view  of 
an  end  definitely  conceived  from  the  first. 

When  it  is  stated  expressly  (verses  4,  5),  that  God 
divided  the  light,  which  He  called  da}\  from  the  darkness, 
which  He  called  night,  the  author  intends  us  to  understand 
by  that,  that  God,  immediately  after  creating  the  light, 
established  a  periodicity  in  its  appearance  and  disappear- 
ance. The  day  is  not  the  light  ;  it  is  a  space  of  time  illu- 
minated, and  intended  for  active  work.  The  7iight  differs 
in  the  same  way  from  darkness  ;  it  is  an  interval  of  time 
darkened,  and  intended  for  repose,  that  is  to  say,  for  a  new 
concentration  of  the  forces  of  life.  From  the  first  appear- 
ance of  light,  God  ordained  this  alternation,  of  which  the  con- 
sequences are  seen  to  be  so  infinitely  beneficial  to  all  crea- 
tures, as  long  as  they  are  in  the  condition  of  gradual 
development. 

The  belief  has  been  imputed  to  Moses  (because  of  the 
y^oxA firmament,  which  is  used  in  some  translations  inverses 
6,  8),  that  the  heavens  formed  a  solid  vault  above  the  earth. 
But  the  Hebrew  word  rakijah  (from  rakah,  "  to  extend  ") 
indicates,  on  the  contrary,  an  element  capable  of  expansion  ; 
the  word  extensio?i,  therefore,  is  a  much  more  accurate  ren- 
dering of  the  Hebrew  term.  We  may  apply  the  word  exten- 
sion in  our  narrative  to  the  Infinity  of  Space,  and  under- 
stand by  "  the  waters  above,"  the  gaseous  matter  out  of 
which  the  stars  were  formed,  and  by  "the  waters  below," 
that  out  of  which  the  terrestrial  globe  is  formed.  But  it  is 
more  natural  to  give  here  to  the  word  heavens  the  more 
restricted  meaning  of  the  terrestrial  atmosphere,  and  to 
apply  the  expression,  "  the  waters  above,''  to  that  mass  of 
vapor  which  floats  in  the  air  in  the  form  of  clouds ;  and 
the  expression,  "  the  waters  below,''  to  those  masses  of  liquid 


42  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

which  cover  a  large  portion  of  the  globe.  This  meaning 
appears  to  be  that  most  naturally  indicated  by  the  oppo- 
sition between  the  waters  and  the  land  in  the  following 
verses. 

The  apparition  of  the  land,  and  its  separation  from  the 
water,  is  the  work  of  the  third  day  (verses  9,  10).  No 
sooner  are  these  three  conditions  —  light,  air,  and  sunshine 
—  given,  than  the  first  form  of  organized  existence  makes 
its  appearance  (verses  11,  12);  the  land  is  covered  with 
a  carpet  of  grass,  and  richly  adorned  with  shrubs  and  seed- 
bearing  trees.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is  to  the  command  of 
God  that  this  new  form  of  existence  is  due,  —  "  And  God 
said ;''  and  on  the  other,  it  is  from  the  earth  itself  that  it 
proceeds, —  "  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  T 

The  production  of  plants  forms  the  transition  from  the 
work  of  the  first  three  days  to  that  of  those  which  follow. 

At  the  head  of  the  work  of  the  last  three  days  is  placed 
(verses  14-  18)  the  appearance  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars. 
The  mention  of  this  fact  explains  to  us  why,  in  the  first 
words  of  the  narrative,  the  author  had  spoken  of  the  crea- 
tion of  the  heavens  as  well  as  of  that  of  the  earth.  Is  this 
the  moment  when,  to  his  mind,  the  organization  of  the  stars, 
or  at  least  that  of  our  solar  system,  was  completed?  Or 
does  he  only  mean  that  this  was  the  time  when  these  stars 
first  exerted  their  illuminating  and  life-giving  power  upon 
our  earth,  when  they  began  to  enter  into  relations  with  her 
as  cefitres  of  light  ?  This  second  sense  appears  to  be  more 
consistent  with  the  general  tendency  of  the  narrative,  and 
particularly  with  these  words  :  "  Let  there  be  lights  in  the 
firmament  of  heaven.''  Everything  is  connected  with  the 
development  of  animal  life,  and  chiefly  with  the  appear- 
ance and  future  activity  of  man  :  "  lights  which  shall  be  for 
sig?is  afid  for  seasons,  and  for  days  and  years''  If  light  in 
general  is  the  condition  of  the  work  of  the  first  three  days, 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  43 

the  relation  of  the  earth  to  the  stars,  and  particularly  to 
the  sun  and  moon,  is  the  condition,  not  less  indispensable, 
of  the  work  of  the  last  three  days. 

The  description  of  the  fifth  day  (verses  20-22)  brings 
before,  us  the  first  appearance  of  animal  life.  This  takes 
place  under  two  principal  forms,— that  of  the  marine 
animals  which  the  waters  bring  forth  at  the  command  of 
God,  and  that  of  birds.  By  the  first  must  be  intended, 
principally,  fish  and  amphibious  creatures  :  "  God  created 
great  whales,  and  every  living  creature  that  moveth;'  (romeseth 
from  ramas,  literally,  ''to  advance  by  crawling''). 

Thus  the  two  first  elements,  air  and  water,  are  opened 
to  life.  The  third,  the  earth,  is  put  in  possession  of  this 
gift  on  the  sixth  day  (verses  24,  25),  by  the  production  of 
domestic  animals  {behemah,  "  cattle  "),  reptiles  {rentes,  "  that 
which  creeps  upon  the  earth  "),  and  the  beasts  of  the  field 
{chajath  haerets,  "  the  wild  beasts  of  the  earth  "). 

Finally,  on  the  same  day,  in  the  second  part  of  this  day, 
God  created  man,  Adam,  His  representative  here  below.* 
His  body  is  no  doubt  taken  out  of  the  ground,  like  those  of 
the  animals ;  but  God  forms  it  with  His  own  hand,  and 
inspires  it  with  a  life  which  emanates  from  His  own  breath. 
Here  is  the  master-work  of  that  Spirit  who,  in  the  begm- 
ning,  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters.  He  worked  upon 
and  elaborated  matter,  only  to  make  it  serve,  under  the 
the  form  of  a  human  body,  as  an  organ  for  a  spirit  which 
proceeds  from  Himself ;  for  in  man  the  Spirit  reproduces 
Himself  in  the  form  of  a  creature. 

This  last-mentioned  being  is  the  aim  and  end  in  particular 
of  the  work  of  the  last  three  days,  and,  at  the  same  time, 

*  Hirsch,  in  the  work  before  quoted,  instead  of  seeing  in  the  word  Adam  7, 
derivative  from  Adamah,  "the  earth/'  inverts  the  relation  of  the  two  words, 
and  that  for  very  good  philological  and  logical  reasons.  He  derives  it  from  the 
word  adam,  "  red-colored." 


44  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

that  of  the  whole  work  taken  together.  Under  the  former 
head,  the  appearance  of  man  in  the  second  part  of  the 
sixth  day,  corresponds  to  the  creation  of  plants  in  the 
second  part  of  the  third  day.  As  plants  are  the  ornaments 
of  the  newly-formed  dry  land,  so  man  is  the  crown  of  that 
animal  life  which  had  gradually  developed  itself. 

After  that,  the  work  is  complete,  and  the  rest  of  the 
seventh  day  puts  an  end,  not  to  the  Divine  activity  in 
general,  but  to  the  creative  activity,  properly  so  called. 
The  Sabbath,  the  great  "  thus  fa?-,  afid  no  further,^*  which 
puts  an  end  to  the  Divine  work  in  Nature,  gives  a  solemn 
confirmation  to  the  truth  already  set  forth  in  the  repeated 
words,  ^''  and  God  said^^'' — the  truth,  namely,  that  the  earth 
is  not  the  result  of  blind  and  ungoverned  powers  —  no 
Sabbath  was  to  put  an  end  to  the  ferment  and  activity  of 
forces  like  these  —  but  it  is  the  work  of  an  intelligent  and 
self-governing  Being,  who  does  all  things  by  measure,  who 
sets  before  Himself,  while  working,  a  definite  object  to  be 
attained,  and  who,  as  soon  as  that  object  is  attained,  sets 
at  rest  again  those  productive  forces  which  He  had  put  in 
motion. 

Such  is  the  record  of  Genesis  in  its  majestic  simplicity. 
If  this  record  is  true,  which  admits  of  no  doubt  in  the  mind 
of  any  Israelite,  it  follows  that  neither  Onnuzd  (light),  nor 
Vulcan  (fire),  nor  Zeus  (the  air),  nor  Cybele  (the  earth),  nor 
Apollo  (the  sun),  nor  Diana  (the  moon),  nor  the  ox  Apis,  nor 
any  animal,  reptile,  bird,  or  quadruped,  nor  any  man  (pre- 
tended representative  of  Ormuzd,  or  Brahma,  or  Osiris), 
has  any  right  to  Divine  honors.  The  supreme  attribute, 
self-existence.  Deity,  belongs  to  Jehovah  alone. 

What  relation,  then,  does  the  Mosaic  picture,  thus  under- 
stood, bear  to  the  results  hitherto  reached  bv  science  ? 

To  begin  by  the  points  of  difference  ;  there  are  two  which 
strike  us  at  the  first  glance,^ 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  45 

1.  Genesis  speaks  of  days;  but  the  periods  implied  by 
the  stratifications  and  the  fossils  they  contain  must  each 
have  consisted  of  millions  of  centuries. 

2.  According  to  Genesis,  animal  life  did  not  begin  upon 
the  earth  till  after  the  appearance  of  the  plants,  whereas 
the  oldest  strata  that  contain  vegetable  remains  exhibit 
already  some  debris  of  crustaceans  and  of  corals  —  monu- 
ments of  an  animal  life  which  must  have  existed  contem- 
poraneously with  that  primitive  vegetation.  At  the  same 
time  that  the  rich  carboniferous  flora  developed  itself,  there 
existed  also  different  species  of  fish,  and  one  breathing  ver- 
tebrate (the  labyrinthodoji). 

These  are  differences  of  which  we  are  not  to  deny  the 
importance ;  and  if  we  are  to  consider  the  record  of  Gene- 
sis as  the  result  of  Divine  dictation,  we  must  own  that  we 
should  be  not  a  little  embarrassed  to  account  for  these  two 
points,  on  which  there  seems  to  be  a  clear  disagreement 
between  the  Bible  narrative  and  the  facts  of  science. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  points  of  resemblance  are  still 
more  striking,  —  all  the  more  so,  because  on  many  of  these 
points,  what  is  told  us  in  the  Bible  being,  as  if  designedly, 
in  contradiction  to  that  which  we  see,  there  would  seem  to 
be  no  other  reasonable  mode  of  explaining  their  origin. 

The  resemblances  are  these  :  — 

1.  According  to  verse  2,  the  earth,  from  the  moment 
when  it  may  be, said  to  have  had  an  existence  of  its  own, 
was  surrounded  by  water.  Now,  science  affirms  that  the 
strata  of  which  the  crust  of  the  earth  is  composed,  were 
deposited  in  water,  and  that  consequently,  in  the  first  ages 
of  its  organization,  the  globe  must  have  presented  the 
appearance  of  a  surface  entirely  liquid. 

2.  In  verse  3,  Genesis  assigns  the  creation  of  light  to 
the  first  day,  while  the  appearance  of  the  sun  did  not  take 
place  till  the  fourth.     It  thereby  defies  the  visible  appear- 


46  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

ances  which  seem  to  make  of  Light  an  emanation  from  the 
sun.  But  Genesis  goes  still  further  ;  it  assigns  to  the  same 
date  the  commencement  of  the  regular  succession  of  days 
and  nights,  a  succession  which,  nevertheless,  according  to 
the  observation  of  all  men,  depends  upon  the  daily  appear- 
ance and  disappearance  of  the  sun.  Accordingly,  all  super- 
ficial minds,  from  Voltaire,  the  genius  of  sarcasm,  to  the 
pygmies  of  the  Progres  of  De'lemont,  can  never  sufficiently 
ridicule  the  follies  of  the  Mosaic  record.  If  they  were  more 
dispassionate,  they  would  perhaps  say  that  however  ignorant 
Moses  may  have  been  of  their  heights  of  science,  he  had 
two  eyes  as  well  as  they ;  and  they  would  ask  how  came  he 
to  compose  a  story  so  contrary  to  the  most  obvious  prob- 
abilities. The  fact  is,  that  the  results  of  modern  science, 
still  ignored  by  the  savants  of  De'lemont,  render  a  striking 
testimony  to  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  record,  and  to  the 
astonishing  wisdom  which  characterizes  it. 

It  is  noiv,  in  fact,  an  established  truth,  that  Light  is  in  its 
nature  entirely  independent  of  the  sun.  It  is  a  vibration 
of  the  ether,  in  which  the  sun  is,  in  our  time,  no  doubt,  the 
chief  agent,  but  which  may  be  produced  by  the  action  of 
many  causes.  Just  as  a  tightly-stretched  wire  or  string 
does  not  vibrate  only  under  the  action  of  the  bow  specially 
adapted  for  that  purpose,  but  may  be  made  to  do  also  with- 
out a  bow,  and  before  any  bow  had  been  invented  —  by 
the  action  of  a  simple  current  of  air,  for  instance  —  so  the 
etherwhich  now  vibrates  regularly  under  the  periodic  action 
of  the  sun,  may  have  formed  and  propagated  its  waves  of 
light  without  the  sun  and  before  the  sun.  The  sound  of 
the  Eolian  harp  bears  the  same  relation  to  that  of  the  string 
touched  by  the  bow  that  primitive  light  does  to  the  sun. 
How  could  Moses  have  known  what  Science  has  only 
recently  discovered,  and  have  perceived  that  the  sun,  instead 
of  being  the  source  of  light,  is  only  the  present  and  tempo- 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  4/ 

rary  instrument  for  its  diffusion  ?  But  the  other  fact  we 
have  mentioned  ought  perhaps  to  astonish  us  still  more. 
How  can  Genesis  speak  of  an  alternation  of  days  and  nights 
as  a  phenomenon  anterior  to  the  appearance  of  the  sun  ? 
There  is  nothing  to  object  to,  as  we  have  seen,  in  this  pre- 
cedence in  itself.  Modern  science  explains  the  fact.  If 
ante-solar,  primitive  light  was,  like  our  present  aurora  bore- 
alis,  the  effect  of  the  neutralization,  throughout  the  whole 
atmosphere,  of  the  two  opposing  kinds  of  electricity,  this 
light  must  have  had  its  hours  of  dawn,  of  mid-day  splendor, 
of  decline,  and  of  complete  cessation.  Consequently,  accord- 
ing to  the  expression  in  the  Bible  narrative,  there  may  have 
been,  and  must  have  been,  days  and  nights,  evefimgs  and 
morniftgs,  before  ever  the  sun  rose  and  set  on  our  horizon. 
But  at  the  time  when  Moses  wrote,  how  was  it  possible 
for  him  to  affirm  anything  of  the  sort  ?  That  is  a  question 
for  an  answer  to  which  we  may  wait,  and  shall  wait  a  long 
time.  Yet  the  fact  of  the  Bible  narrative  is  here  before  our 
eyes  in  all  its  undeniable  and  paradoxical  clearness. 

Genesis  tells  us  (verse  9)  that  the  dry  land  appeared  in 
the  midst  of  the  waters,  and  that  thus  the  separation  was 
made  between  the  land  and  the  sea.  If  there  is  one  fact 
more  certainly  proved  by  modern  science  than  another,  it 
is  that  the  centinents  were  gradually  lifted  up  from  the 
bottom  of  the  sea. 

4.  Genesis  speaks  of  a  great  vegetable  creation,  which 
covered  the  lands  then  just  emerged.  Science  has  ascer- 
tained, by  the  discovery  of  the  carboniferous  strata,  that  a 
period  of  colossal  vegetation  followed  the  upheaval  of  those 
primitive  rocks  of  which  the  terrestrial  envelope  is  composed. 
Of  this  the  coal-beds  which  we  work  are  the  monuments. 
And  if  the  gentlemen  of  the  Progres  amuse  themselves 
at  the  expense  of  Moses,  for  being  such  a  simpleton  as  to 
place  the  growth  of  plants  before  the  creation  of  the  sun, 


48  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

science  proves  that  Moses,  who  lived  fifteen  centuries  before 
Christ,  knew  more  about  the  subject  than  they  do,  Uving  in 
the  nineteenth  century  of  our  era.  For  it  proves  that  there 
is  a  light,  other  than  that  of  the  sun,  which  possesses  all 
the  properties  required  by  vegetation,  and  that  this  light 
existed  at  the  beginning  of  the  world. 

5.  Genesis  makes  the  appearance  of  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars  on  our  horizon  to  take  place  after  this  great  evolution 
of  vegetation.  Now  what  has  Science  demonstrated  .''  It 
acknowledges,  in  the  person  of  M.  Karl  Miiller,  who  can- 
not be  suspected  of  partiality  in  favor  of  the  Scriptures,  that 
during  the  periods  which  followed  that  of  the  carboniferous 
vegetation  there  was  effected,  by  degrees,  a  transformation 
more  and  more  complete  in  the  vegetation ;  which  could 
only  have  been  produced  under  the  immediate  action  of  the 
solar  rays,  hindered  during  the  carboniferous  era.  A  ver}^ 
strange  hypothesis  has  been  lately  put  forward,  namely, 
that  the  moon  may  be  simply  that  fraction  of  the  earth's 
crust  which  originally  filled  up  the  immense  basin  of  the 
Pacific  ocean.  If  it  should  ever  be  proved  that  there  is 
any  truth  in  this  bold  conjecture,  we  might  allow,  not  only 
that  the  solar  system  became  visible  to  the  earth  at  the  time 
of  which  we  are  now  speaking,  but  that  it  then  only  really 
reached  its  present  organization,  and  had  its  relations  with 
our  globe  definitely  settled. 

6.  To  the  rich  development  of  vegetable  life  on  the 
third  day.  Genesis  makes  to  succeed  a  no  less  mighty  burst- 
ing forth  of  animal  life,  in  the  waters  and  in  the  air,  on  the 
fifth  day.  Now  Science  has  proved,  by  the  remains  of 
organized  beings  found  in  the  strata  of  the  triassic,  Jurassic, 
and  cretaceous  periods,  which  followed  at  some  distance 
upon  that  of  the  carboniferous  strata,  that  a  development 
of  animal  life,  of  marvellous  richness,  had  taken  place  in  the 
oceans  at  that  epoch.     And,  more  astonishing  still,  it  is  also 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  49 

to  this  age  that  geology  assigns  the  date  of  the  appearance 
of  birds.  How  was  Moses  able  thus  to  afhrm  the  priority 
of  marine  and  amphibious  to  terrestrial  animals  ?  And  how 
can  he  have  known  the  contemporaneousness  of  the  appear- 
ance of  birds  and  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  sea  ? 

7.  Next  after  the  appearance  of  life  in  the  waters  and  in 
the  air,  Genesis  places  the  creation  of  terrestrial  animals, 
of  cattle,  wild  beasts,  and  reptiles.  Now  Science  has  proved 
that  it  was  at  the  time  of  the  molassic  or  tertiary  formations, 
which  were  deposited  immediately  after  the  Jurassic  and 
cretaceous  strata,  that  precisely  these  three  classes  of 
animals  did  make  their  appearance.  According  to  the  very 
exact  data  of  M.  Heer,  *  the  Swiss  7nolasse  has  comprehend- 
ed three  sorts  of  serpents,  eighteen  kinds  of  beasts  of  prey 
and  of  rodents,  and  forty-eight  species  of  pachyderms  (her- 
bivorous animals),  and  ruminants.  This,  then,  was  indeed 
the  first  great  introduction  into  the  world  of  terrestrial  ani- 
mals and  mammals.  It  seems  as  if  a  whole  multitude  of  his 
future  subjects  whether  independent  or  prepared  before- 
hand to  submit  to  him,  hastened  to  appear  upon  the  globe 
to  meet  the  sovereign  who  was  approaching. 

8.  The  appearance  of  all  these  forms,  so  infinitely  various, 
of  organic  life,  animal  and  vegetable,  is  attributed  in 
Genesis  to  a  series  of  Divine  commands:  ''and  God 
j^/^;'_  without,  however,  thereby  either  denying  or  even 
omitting  expressly  to  notice  the  instrumentality  of  natural 
agents,  as  witness  the   expression  :  ''let  the  waters  brmg 

forth,  .  .  ,  let  the  land  bring  forth r  What  says  Science 
upon  this  point?  We  make  no  attempt  here  to  treat  the 
question  of  the  permaneiice  of  species.  Certainly,  Moses 
seems  to  affirm  this  great  principle,  which  Darwin  is  far 
from  having  succeeded  in  overturning.  But  from  a  still 
more  general  point  of  view,  what  is  it  that  Science  has  in 

*  Die  Urwelt  der  Schweiz. 


50  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

our  day  to  do  ?  Is  it  not  to  establish  the  harmony  of  those 
two  equally  received  principles, —  one,  that  Life  cafi  07ily  be 
produced  by  Life  (p.  92),  the  other,  that  this  engendering  of 
life  by  life  is  governed  by  second  causes,  and  requires  the 
co-operation  of  the  natural  elements  ?  Moses  has  not,  it  is 
true,  given  us  the  exact  formula  for  this  harmonization.  To 
work  at  discovering  it  is  one  of  the  highest  tasks  of  Science. 
But  has  he  not  erected,  with  a  bold  and  firm  hand,  the  two 
pillars  of  the  arch  which  is  to  form  that  bridge  so  difficult 
of  construction?  ^'' And  God  said,'' — there  we  see  the 
principle  that  life  alone  is  capable  of  begetting  life.  "  Let 
the  earth,  ...  let  the  waters  bring  forth," —  there  we  see 
the  co-operation  of  Nature  freely  granted.  The  defenders 
of  the  creative  principle  must  not  allow  themselves  to  be 
drawn  into  denying  the  truth  contained  in  these  last  words  ; 
on  the  other  hand,  no  possible  discovery  in  the  direction 
of  Darwinism  can  go  beyond  it. 

9.  According  to  Genesis,  the  creation  of  man  was  the 
close  of  the  work  of  creation ;  and  this  supreme  act  was 
accomplished  on  the  same  day  as  that  of  the  creation  of 
the  terrestrial  animals.  Now  modern  science  shows  that 
the  first  vestiges  of  the  existence  of  man  do  not  make  their 
appearance  till  the  most  recent  stratifications,  at  the  end 
of  the  tertiar}^  period  ;  but  nevertheless  they  do  appear  in 
the  course  of  that  period.  The  sixth  day  did  then  really 
witness,  as  the  Scripture  tells  us,  the  contemporaneous 
existence  of  man  and  of  the  representatives  of  that  great 
animal  creation  which  immediately  preceded  his  arrival. 
There  was  not  here  the  closing  of  one  epoch  and  the 
beginning  of  another  ;  it  was  the  continuation  of  the  same 
period. 

10.  And  now  let  us  bring  out,  with  regard  to  man,  one 
special  point.  Genesis  affirms  the  creation  of  a  single  pair, 
from  whom  all  mankind  descended.     It  is  not  long  since 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  5 1 

Science  protested  with  all  its  strength  against  this  dogma 
of  the  unity  of  the  human  race.  It  urged  the  anatomical 
and  physiological  differences  of  races  ;  and  affirmed  in  its 
most  trenchant  tones  the  absolute  impossibility  of  deriving 
them  from  a  single  pair.  And  now  we  have  this  same 
Science  not  shrinking  from  the  far  more  hazardous  attempt 
of  deriving  from  one  and  the  same  organic  cell  ....  is  it 
all  mankind  ?  No,  that  is  not  enough.  Or  is  it  all  mankind 
and  all  animals  together  ?  That  is  still  too  little.  It  is  all 
organized  beings,  even  plants, —  all  from  one  single  source 
of  organized  life ! 

O  Science  ! 

The  object  at  that  time  was  to  play  tricks  with  Scripture 
upon  one  particular  point  —  the  unity  of  the  human  race. 
It  is  now  to  clear  away  the  Divine  element  out  of  our  theory 
of  Nature.  They  are  as  ready  now  to  swallow  a  camel  as 
they  were  then  to  strain  at  a  gnat !  And  Science  lends 
herself  easily  to  all  these  contradictor}^  services  demanded 
of  her.  Docile  servant,  preached  up  in  public  as  the  queen 
of  the  world,  and  made  in  private  the  slave  of  all  our 
caprices ! 

However  it  may  be,  we  are  now  assuredly  allowed  by 
Mr.  Darwin  and  his  disciples,  to  maintain  that  the  unity  of 
the  human  race,  proclaimed  by  Genesis,  is  no  longer  open 
to  any  insuperable  scientific  objection.  The  theor}"  of  the 
transmutation  of  species  has  indeed  many  another  mountain 
to  get  over ! 

II.  Genesis  speaks  of  a  Divine  sabbath,  a  full  stop 
placed  by  God  Himself  to  His  creative  work ;  a  day 
assigned  to  God's  well-beloved  child,  just  created,  for 
rejoicing  in  God  and  becoming  one  with  Him.  And 
Science  proves  that,  as  a  fact,  with  the  appearance  of  man, 
the  creation  of  all  new  species  ceased,  and  that  in  the 
midst  of  this  repose  of  Nature,  bought  at  the  price  of  such 


52  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

prolonged  labors,  that  purely  moral  work  at  once  began 
of  man  seeking  his  Creator,  and  transferring  to  God,  by 
worship,  this  world  which  God  had  set  up  for  him  by  the 
creative  act.  All  this  present  age  is  the  sabbath,  in  which, 
the  work  being  now  completed,  the  master-work  and  the 
worker  meet  and  greet  one  another  in  love. 

What  are  we  to  think  of  such  a  series  of  points  of  agree 
ment  ?  Are  they  the  result  of  accident  ?  As  well  might 
we  say  that  the  fitting  together  of  two  cog-wheels  is  a  mere 
chance.  Are  they  the  result  of  observation  of  Nature,  or 
of  philosophical  speculation  well  directed  ?  But  what 
philosophical  labor  could  have  led  us  to  the  idea  of  light 
appearing  and  disappearing  periodically,  independently  of 
the  sun  ?  And  even  if  it  had  been  possible  to  argue  con- 
clusively from  simple  observation  that  the  appearance  of 
the  vegetable  kingdom  must  have  preceded  that  of  animals, 
what  experience  could  have  led  to  the  idea  that  the  marine 
animals  and  birds  appeared  simultaneously,  and  that  they 
preceded  the  terrestrial  animals  and  reptiles ;  and  that 
finally,  the  appearance  of  these  last  had  bordered  imme- 
diately upon  that  of  man  ? 

It  has  been  thought  by  some  that  there  is  a  logical 
symmetry  in  the  account  of  the  work  of  the  six  days, 
sufficient  to  account  for  it.  On  the  first  day,  light ;  on  the 
fourth,  the  luminaries :  on  the  second,  the  waters  and  the 
atmosphere  ;  on  the  fifth,  marine  animals  and  birds  :  on  the 
third,  the  land  and  plants ;  on  the  sixth,  land  animals  and 
man.  But  whatever  may  be  thought  of  this  parallelism 
which,  in  order  to  make  it  more  complete,  would  require 
that  birds  only  should  have  appeared  on  the  fifth  day 
(corresponding  with  the  creation  of  the  atmosphere  on  the 
second  day),  and  that  the  marine  animals  should  not  have 
come  in  till  the  sixth  day,  together  with  the  land  animals 
(corresponding  with  the  separation  of  the  land  and  waters 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  53 

on  the  third  day),  the  coincidence  of  these  arrangements 
with  the  actual  order  o£  creation  demands,  none  the  less 
It  have  seen,  some  explanation  other  than  that  whtch 
any  of  the  rationalistic  hypotheses  are  able  to  give.     Th 
delired  explanation  we  believe  we   have  sketched  out  a 
the  beginning  of  this  essay.     We  must  acknowledge  tn  the 
Mosaf  record  a  revelation,  but  not  in  the  form  of  a  dicta- 
don      It  is,  as  we  expected  beforehand,  know  edge  give, 
under  the  form   of   pictures,  analogous  to   those  o     the 
prophetic  visions.     And  from  this  point  of  view,  the  two 
difficulties  which  we  mentioned  at  A^^'?^?-"'"^  fJ^^J^ 
explained.     Moses  speaks  of  days,  and  ,t  w.s  -a  >  P  ^j 
of  millions  of  years  which  were  required.     We  will  not  urge 
here  the  very^  indefinite  sense  often  given  to  the  word  ^^ 
in  Scripture,  but  we  will  say  :  If  it  was  the  purpose  of  God 
to  cause  Moses  to  contemplate  in  an  abridged  form  the 
principal  phases  through  which  the  work  of  creation  passed 
Hs  gradual   development,  would  not   the   best  way  of 
.iving  him  an  idea  of  it  have  been  to  paint  each  period  in 

:  single  picture,  which  should  -P-^^^V^t^'/T  f  theTe 
the  stage  which  the  work  had  then  reached?  Each  of  these 
pictures  was  to  the  eye  of  Moses  one  day;  but  in  this  one 
day  were  represented  all  the  analogous  days  of  that  same 
period      The   interval  which  separated    this  picture  from 
that  which  followed  it  was  a  night ;  and  in  this  night  were 
figured  all  other  nights  of  the  same  period,  during  which 
the  period  which  was  to  follow  was  being  slowly  prepared 
for      Thus  there  passed  before  his  eyes  these  six  pictures, 
representing  the  most  characteristic  phases  of  the  entire 
work      He  has  preserved  for  us  a  memorial  of  these  phases, 
but  without  having  himself  penetrated  into  their  meanings 
in  detail,  any  more  than  the  prophets  were  able  clearly  to 
understand  the  intuitions  excited  in  them  by  the  Divine 


54  STUDIES    O'^    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

Spirit.*  He  only  comprehended  in  each  picture  the  central 
idea,  the  only  one  practically  wanted, —  that  of  Jehovah  as 
the  One  Being,  the  author  of  each  separate  part  of  the 
work,  as  well  as  of  the  work  as  a  whole. 

We  can  see  also  from  the  nature  of  this  mode  of  instruc- 
tion, that  it  would  be  only  the  salient  features  of  each 
period  which  could  be  admitted  into  these  pictures  and 
strike  the  eye  of  the  seer.  The  vegetable  and  animal  life, 
for  instance,  which  developed  itself  from  the  first  at  the 
bottom  of  the  sea,  remained  concealed  from  him.  It  was 
only  when  the  vegetable  life  made  that  mighty  and  colossal 
outburst  of  which  the  carboniferous  strata  bear  evidence, 
that  he  discerned  it ;  for  then  it  became  the  essential 
feature  of  the  picture.  Just  so  with  regard  to  the  appear- 
ance of  the  great  marine  animals  and  of  birds,  in  the 
following  ages  ;  and  so  again  with  reference  to  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  terrestrial  animals  and  of  man  in  the 
last  period.  We  are  looking  upon  a  pictorial  work,  and 
not  at  the  work  of  a  naturalist  or  man  of  science.  Placing 
ourselves  at  this  point  of  view,  we  see  those  difficulties 
vanish  which  hindered  us  from  finding  in  this  record  that 
which  so  many  reasons  make  us  wish  to  recognize  in  it  — 
the  result  of  a  revelation. 

To  put  the  seal  to  the  agreement  which  we  have  just 
established  between  the  contents  of  the  pictures  in  Genesis, 
and  the  results  of  scientific  investigation,  it  only  remains  to 
set  these  latter  in  the  frame  given  us  by  the  former,  and  so 
to  combine  these  two  kinds  of  results  into  one  and  the 
same  intuition,  similar  to  that  which  was  produced  at  the 
moment  of  the  vision  in  the  mind  of  the  seer.f 

*  I  Pet.  i.  10-12. 

t  The  following  passage  is  borrowed  in  great  measure  from  the  admirable 
work  of  an  English  workingman,  Hugh  Miller,  who  became  both  one  of  the  best 
geologists  and  one  of  the  most  brilliant  writers  of  his  country  :  T/ie  Testimony 
of  the  Rocks,  pp.  1 87-1 91. 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  55 

We  must  imagine  ourselves  seated  with  the  man  of  God 
upon  the  mountain.  Darkness  surrounds  us.  About  us 
and  within  us  reigns  the  silence  which  is  the  precursor  of 
Divine  revelations.  The  prophetic  sense  with  which  all 
men  are  endued  by  Nature,  awakes  in  us,  and  just  as  St. 
John  contemplates,  in  his  trance  on  the  rock  in  Patmos, 
the  last  ages  of  the  world,  and  in  some  sort  the  passage  of 
time  into  eternity,  so  we  contemplate-  the  first  days  of  the 
universe,  the  river  of  time  springing  forth  out  of  eternity. 
In  the  midst  of  the  solemn  darkness,  our  ear  perceives  a 
muffled  sound,  like  that  of  the  sea  agitated  by  a  mighty 
wind,  of  which  the  surface  rises  and  falls  in  vast  undulations, 
and  the  waves  at  times  meet  and  break  one  against  the 
other.  This  is  the  ocean  in  which  our  earth  is  still 
enveloped  as  in  a  winding-sheet.  The  breath  which  moves 
it  is  that  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Creator,  which  broods  over 
this  mysterious  egg  in  order  to  bring  out  of  it  a  world  of 
wonders,  a  Humanity,  a  Christ !  We  feel  that  this  darkness 
is  not  the  darkness  of  the  grave,  but  that  of  the  fertile 
Night,  which  serves  as  a  cradle  for  all  life.  And  in  this 
darkness  of  a  moment  are  concentrated  centuries  without 
number,  all  the  ages  which  elapsed  from  the  creation  of 
matter  up  to  the  formation  of  the  solid  crust  of  the  globe, 
and  the  condensation  of  the  waters  upon  its  surface. 

Suddenly,  a  voice  breaks  the  silence  of  this  long 
night  :  — 

"Let  there  be  Light." 

At  once  a  luminous  jet,  followed  by  dazzling  rays  which 
radiate  towards  all  the  points  of  the  horizon,  illumines 
the  scene.  It  is  a  radiant  light,  like  that  which  from  time 
to  time  illumines  the  inhabitants  of  the  polar  regions 
during  their  long  nights  of  many  months.  By  its  light  we 
discern,  through  the  thick  vapors  which  cover  the  earth, 
the  liquid  shoreless  plain  which  surrounds  us.     From  time 


555  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

to  time,  gases,  disengaging  themselves  from  the  interior 
furnace  of  the  globe,  make  the  waters  surge  and  boil,  and 
lift  up  to  their  surface  a  plain,  which  soon  sinks  down 
again,  and  is  once  more  swallowed -up.  The  jets  of  light 
lose  by  degrees  their  brilliancy,  and,  paling  more  and 
more,  end  in  being  altogether  extinguished.  We  now  hear 
nothing  but  the  roar  of  the  mighty  waters  on  every  side  of 
us.  Darkness  surrounds  us.  And  in  this  single  day  we 
have  contemplated  the  representative  of  millions  of  days, 
which  lit  up  our  earth  before  any  eye  of  man  was  there  to 
discern  them. 

The  voice  sounds  once  more  :  — 

"Let  there  be  a  firmament  in  the  midst  of  the 
waters,    and    let    it    divide    the    waters    from    the 

WATERS." 

Once  more  it  is  day ;  our  eyes  wander  still  over  a  liquid 
plain  which  mingles  on  all  sides  with  the  horizon.  Per- 
haps there  may  be  life  in  the  midst  of  this  sea,  life  both 
animal  and  vegetable,  but  we  do  not  perceive  it.  That 
which  now  absorbs  our  attention  is  the  gradual  transforma- 
tion taking  place  in  the  space  above  the  ocean.  Before, 
the  vapors  rose  from  the  sea  as  out  of  a  caldron  of 
boiling  water,  and  the  glittering  light  furrowed  these  dark 
water-spouts.  Now  the  sea  appears  more  calm  ;  a  thicker 
partition  separates  it,  no  doubt,  from  the  subterranean  fire. 
Its  tepid  waters,  moved  by  a  gentle  breeze,  rise  and  fall  in 
regular  undulations.  The  less  dense  vapors  rise  more 
lightly  into  the  higher  regions,  and  when  they  there 
encounter  a  colder  temperature  they  form  themselves  into 
thick  clouds,  which  remain  suspended  all  round  the  globe. 
Below  this  dark  covering,  between  it  and  the  sea,  appears 
for  the  first  time  the  transparent  atmosphere,  the  azure  fir- 
mament which  divides  the  aerial  sea  from  the  liquid  plain. 
Such  was  the  second  day,  in  the  picture  of  which  is  con- 
centrated the  imaire  of  millions  of  davs. 

o  ^ 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  5/ 

We  are  once  more  plunged  into  darkness,  but  not  with- 
out a  presentiment  of  the  approach  of  a  greater  work  still. 
The  voice  says  :  — 

"  Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven  be  gathered 
together  into  one  place,  and  let  the  dry  land 
appear  !  " 

For  the  third  time  the  scene  is  lighted  up.  The  canopy 
of  thick  clouds  suspended  around  the  globe  is  not  yet 
dissipated.  But  upon  the  stage  below,  what  changes  have 
taken  place  !  The  ocean  is  no  longer  one  uniform  sheet  in 
which  our  eyes  sought  in  vain  for  a  point  to  rest  upon 
The  waves  dash  themselves  against  rocks,  some  pointed, 
some  dome-like.  Long  lines  of  white  foam  indicate  the 
presence  of  coral  islands,  on  a  level  with  the  surface  of  the 
water,  against  which  the  waves  are  breaking.  We  even  per- 
ceive in  the  distance  vast  marshv  lowlands.  This  is  because, 
at  the  command  of  the  Creator,  the  bottom  of  the  sea  has 
lifted  itself  up,  and  continents  have  appeared.  And  these 
new-born  lands  array  themselves,  as  we  look  at  them,  with  a 
covering  of  green  and  fresh  verdure.  Mosses,  marsh- 
plants,  reeds,  ferns,  forests  of  pines,  and  palm-trees  make 
their  appearance.  These  reeds,  as  tall  as  our  oaks,  these 
ferns,  as  large  as  our  horse-chestnuts,  wave  upon  the  banks 
of  rivers  of  dark  waters,  and  of  lakes  still  and  shallow. 
Here,  then,  we  have  before  our  eyes,  in  all  its  luxuriant 
wealth,  that  mighty  tropical  vegetation,  which  God  has  pre- 
served to  our  times  under  the  form  of  coal. 

At  the  bottom  of  these  waters,  life  begins  to  stir ;  coral 
insects  are  building ;  innumerable  molluscs  crawl  in  the 
mud  upon  these  low  shores.  But  the  prominent  feature  in 
the  picture  is  that  wonderful  vegetation  which  we  have  just 
described ;  all  the  rest  is  as  nothing  compared  to  that 
unparalleled  apparition.  But  in  the  forests  there  still 
reigns  the  silence  of  death  ;  no  living  creature   animates 


58  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

them  by  his  presence.  No  movement  is  to  be  seen  but 
that  of  the  long  branches  swaying  in  the  wind,  and  of  the 
thick  mists  creeping  along  the  marshy  lands.  Such  was 
the  third  day,  the  sample  of  millions  of  other  days. 

And  while  darkness  again  descends  upon  us,  something 
extraordinary  in  the  state  of  the  atmosphere  announces 
some  new  and  decisive  step  about  to  be  made  in  the 
divine  work. 

The  voice  of  the  Lord  proclaims  :  — 

"  Let  there  be  Lights    in    the    firmament  of    the 

HEAVEN." 

It  is  night ;  our  attention  is  directed  towards  the  heavens. 
The  canopy  of  clouds  breaks,  and  in  the  intervals  made  by 
these  rents,  our  sight  reaches  for  the  first  time  into  im- 
penetrable depths.  New  and  unparalleled  spectacle  !  The 
stars  shine  out  in  the  firmament.  As  the  sky  disengages 
itself  from  the  vapors  which  concealed  it  these  stars 
multiply.  Soon  their  light  gleams  on  all  sides.  The 
vault  of  heaven  is  unveiled  in  its  completeness,  shining 
without  cloud  over  our  heads.  The  morning-star  beams, 
radiant  as  a  queen  in  the  midst  of  her  court,  and  casts  her 
pure  image  for  the  first  time  upon  our  globe.  But  soon  she 
begins  to  pale.  The  vapors,  scattered  in  light  masses 
over  the  horizon,  begin  to  glow ;  they  pass  from  gray  to 
bronze,  from  bronze  to  gold ;  the  gold  changes  into  fire ; 
.  .  .  one  brilliant  point  appears  above  the  waters ;  the 
Sun  is  come,  and  has  celebrated  his  first  rising.  Darting 
into  the  azure  sky,  he  enters  boldly  upon  his  course.  The 
waters,  ruffled  by  the  morning  breeze,  glitter  beneath  his 
splendors.  Under  the  influence  of  his  brilliant  rays,  a 
new  kind  of  vegetation  makes  its  appearance,  adorned  with 
a  thousand  colors  unknown  to  the  preceding  flora. 
A  carpet  of  verdure,  thicker  and  more  varied,  covers  the 
dark  soil  of  the  continents.     Soon  we  perceive  the  heavenly 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  59 

■  luminary  descend  towards  the  western  horizon  in  a  glory- 
even  more  magnificent  than  that  which  surrounded  his 
rising ;  and  for  the  first  time,  at  the  opposite  point  of  the 
horizon,  appears  the  second  luminary  of  the  terrestrial 
creation.  Rising  silently  into  the  azure  vault,  the  moon 
sheds  her  gentle  light  over  land  and  sea.  Such  was  the. 
fourth  day,  an  image  of  millions  of  other  days.  Why  w^ere. 
the  angels  alone  to  witness  it  ?  —  But  through  the  eyes  of 
the  Seer,  we,  too,  have  been  just  contemplating  something 
of  its  sublime  beauties. 

For  the  fifth  time,  night  covers  the  picture.  But  the  voice 
has  again  proclaimed  :  — 

"  Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abundantly  the  mov- 
ing CREATURE  THAT  HATH  LIFE,  AND  FOWL  THAT  MAY  FLY 
ABOVE  THE  EARTH   IN  THE  OPEN  FIRMAMENT  OF  HEAVEN." 

Daylight  appears.  Like  a  bride  prepared  for  her  bride- 
groom, the  earth  is  adorned  with  flowers  of  varied  colors. 
But  what  do  I  hear  ?  For  the  first  time  a  voice  other  than 
that  of  the  Lord  God,  and  than  the  sound  of  the  mighty 
waters  strikes  upon  my  ear.  It  is  as  the  cry  of  discordant 
voices.  Birds  in  close  ranks,  like  insects  on  a  summer 
evening,  fly  above  the  lakes,  or  traverse  the  forests,  while 
others  of  their  kind,  of  gigantic  size,  as  if  mounted  on  stilts,, 
wade  through  the  reedy  ponds,  pursuing  the  fish. 

But  they  themselves  soon  become  the  prey  of  formidable 
enemies.  For  this  is  also  the  age  of  the  amphibious  reptiles, 
whether  swimming  or  flying  :  monsters  covered  with  thick 
scales,  armed  with  murderous  teeth,  haunt  the  long-winding 
rivers,  or  crawl  upon  the  wet  meadows,  or  hang  suspended 
on  the  trees  and  rocks  ready  to  pounce  upon  their  prey. 
The  ocean  also  is  full  of  life.  There  disport  themselves 
the  giants  of  the  age  ;  they  stir  its  depths  with  the  strokes 
of  their  mighty  fins,  and  lift  above  its  surface  their  enor- 
mous forms  and  terrible  heads.     The  water,  the  air,  the; 


60  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

land  (still  marshy),  all  are  crowded  with  animal  life.  For 
has  not  the  Eternal  One  said  :  "  Let  the  waters  bring  forth 
abundantly  the  moving  creature  that  hath  life,  and  fowl 
that  may  fly  above  the  earth  in  the  open  firmament  of 
heaven  ? "  At  this  word  of  command  all  these  new  and 
unknown  creatures  have  come  into  being  !  —  And  now  upon 
this  scene,  full  of  light  and  movement,  the  sun  sets,  and 
night  veils  from  sight  the  mystery  of  these  innumerable  lives. 
The  fifth  day  is  over,  and  in  this  single  picture  we  have 
before  our  eyes  the  spectacle  of  millions  of  days,  whose 
light  did  actually  shine  upon  our  globe. 

Again  we  are  plunged  into  night.  For  the  sixth  time 
the  voice  proclaims  :  — 

"  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  the  living  creature 
after  his  kind." 

And  when  the  light  again  illumines  this  stage  upon 
which  the  work  of  God  was  by  degrees  accomplishing  itself, 
what  a  scene  meets  our  eyes  !  The  marine  monsters  have 
disappeared.  Of  all  these  horrible  amphibious  creatures 
there  remains  only  a  small  number  of  species,  less  colossal 
and  less  formidable.  In  their  place,  over  the  verdant 
plains,  cattle  and  beasts  of  the  field  are  grazing  ;  great  herds 
of  mastodons  and  mammoths  seek  their  pasture  in  the  fresh 
herbage  of  the  forest.  Ranging  the  woods  are  troops  of 
stags  and  elks ;  the  bear  watches  over  her  young  in  the 
cave ;  the  hippopotamus  crouches  among  the  reeds,  or 
plunges  majestically  into  the  river ;  the  rhinoceros  sports 
in  the  marshes,  while  the  lion,  the  leopard,  and  other  wild 
animals,  lie  in  wait  amongst  the  dark  thickets,  ready  to 
spring  upon  the  herds  of  antelopes  hurrying  to  the  water. 
At  last,  at  the  hour  when  the  sun  sinks,  and  the  day  declines, 
a  supreme  last  word  is  heard  :  — 

"Let  us  make  man  in  our  image." 

And  the  responsible  lord  of  this  creation,  Man,  formed 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  6l 

in  the  actual  image  of  God,  comes  forth  at  the  command 
of  his  Creator  upon  this  scene  which  has  been  arranged, 
adorned,  and  peopled  to  receive  him. 

At  this  moment  the  work  of  Creation  ceases.  The  rest 
of  God  begins  ;  but  in  this  rest  is  included  a  r^ew  kind  of 
work  —  that  of  the  moral  education  of  man,  of  his  redemp- 
tion and  final  glorification.  The  work  of  this  seventh  day- 
still  continues  ;  a  day  sanctified  by  God  above  all  the  rest, 
but  profaned  by  man,  as  none  of  those  that  preceded  it 
was,  or  could  be,  by  the  creatures  whose  existence  they 
illumined.  A  day  of  which  we  have  now  perhaps  reached 
the  eleventh  hour,  and  which  will  be  followed  for  some  by 
a  day  without  an  evening,  for  others  by  a  night  which  shall 
have  no  morning.  In  this  Divine  Sabbath  which  we  are 
contemplating  in  the  company  of  the  man  of  God  upon  the 
mount,  we  see  also  the  sample  of  millions  of  other  days  — 
of  all  those  in  w^hich  we  ourselves  are  living,  of  all  the  mil- 
lions of  Sabbaths  of  which  God  makes  use  in  our  time  for 
the  sanctification  of  the  human  race,  and  which  the  human 
race  so  often  misuses  to  the  dishonor  of  the  Creator. 


IV. 

CONCLUSION.       ' 

Let  us  now  sum  up  and  conclude. 

Moses  had  said,  contrar}-  to  all  probability,  that  light 
had  existed  long  before  the  appearance  of  the  sun  ;  Science 
has  proved  that  the  world  may,  and  must,  have  been  illu- 
mined, long  before  the  appearance  of  the  sun. 

Moses  had  said,  no  less  paradoxically,  that  the  world  of 
vegetation  had  appeared  before  the  sun  had  shone  ;  Science 


62  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

has  proved  that  a  rich  Hfe  of  vegetation  spread  over  the 
the  earth  before  the  direct  inter^'ention  of  the  sun's  rays. 

Moses  had  spoken  of  three  principal  appearances  of 
organic  hfe,  one  vegetable,  two  animal ;  the  Science  of  our 
day  discerns  three  great  epochs  of  organic  life  —  that  of 
the  carboniferous  age,  and  those  of  the  great  amphibious 
creatures  and  mammals. 

Moses  had  represented  man  as  the  latest-born  of  the 
creation ;  Science  declares  that  man  is  the  one,  of  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  earth,  who  closed  the  series  of  new 
creations  upon  our  globe. 

But  let  us  admit  that  all  these  coincidences  of  detail  are 
only  accidental,  or  that  they  are  about  to  be  overturned  by 
some  new  step  in  advance,  either  in  exegesis  or  in  geology ; 
there  still  remain  three  principal  features  in  the  Mosiac 
picture  which  will  ever  claim  attention  from  all  thoughtful 
men  : — 

I.  -  The  cause  of  all  things  :   God. 

II.  The  order  of  things  :  a  continual  progress. 

III.  TheJiJial  object  of  things  :  man. 

I.  ^'' And  God  mid !^^  This  is  the  word  which  gives  the 
key-note  to  the  narrative,  the  burden  ten  times  repeated, 
of  this  magnificent  poem.  To  say  is  both  to  think  and  to 
will.  In  this  speaking  of  God,  there  is  both  the  legislative 
power  of  His  intelligence,  and  the  executive  power  of  His 
will ;  this  one  word  dispels  all  notion  of  blind  matter,  and 
of  brute  fatalism  ;  it  reveals  an  enlightened  Power,  an 
intelligent  and  benevolent  Thought,  underlying  all  that  is. 

And  at  the  same  time  that  this  word,  "  And  God  said,''^ 
appears  to  us  as  the  veritable  truth  of  things,  it  also  reveals 
to  us  their  true  value  and  legitimate  use.  Beautiful  and 
beneficent  as  the  work  may  be,  its  real  worth  is  not  in 
itself ;  it  is  in  the  thought  and  in  the  heart  of  the  Author 
to  whom  it  owes  its  existence.     Whenever  we  stop  short  in 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  63 

the  work  itself,  our  enjoyment  of  it  can  only  be  superficial, 
and  we  are,  through  our  ingratitude,  on  the  road  to  an 
idolatry  more  or  less  gross.  Our  enjoyment  is  only  pure 
and  perfect  when  it  results  from  the  contact  of  our  soul 
with  the  Author  himself.  To  form  this  bond  is  the  true 
aim  of  Nature,  as  well  as  the  proper  destination  of  the  life 

of  man. 

Behind  this  veil  of  the  visible  universe  which  dazzles  me, 
behind  these  blind  forces  of  which  the  play  at  times  terror- 
strikes  me,  behind  this  regularity  of  seasons  and  this  fixed- 
ness of  laws,  which  almost  compel  me  to  recognize  in  all 
things  only  the  march  of  a  fixed  Tate,  this  word,  ''And 
God  said;'  unveils  to  me  an  Arm  of  might,  an  Eye  which 
sees,  a  Heart  full  of  benevolence  which  is  seeking  me,  a 
Person   who    loves   me.     This    ray  of   light   which,  as   it 
strikes  upon  my  retina,  paints  there  with  a  perfect  accuracy, 
upon  a  surface  of  the  size  of  a  centime,  a  landscape  of 
many  miles  in  extent  — He    it  is  who  commanded   it  to 
shine.     This  atmosphere  which  my  lungs  breathe,  and  which 
is  fonned  of  two  gases,  either  of  which,  by  itself,  would  be 
a  deadlypoison  to  me  — He  it  is  who  commanded  it  to 
give  me  life.     This  ground  upon  which  I  walk,  labor,  build, 
plant,  and  under  which,  at  a  very  small  depth,  the  terrible 
central  furnace  is   boihng  — He  it  is  who  makes  it  firm 
beneath  my  feet.     These  flowers  and  fruits  which  I  gather 
in  succession  during  the  greatest  part  of  the  year,  which 
delight  me  with  their  perfume,  charm  me  with  their  taste, 
or  heal  me  with  their  juices  — He  it  is  who  sowed  their 
seeds  for  me  in  this  fair  garden  of  the  earth.     This  sun 
which  measures  out  for  me  my  years,  my  days,   and  my 
hours ;  this  moon  which  divides  my  years  into  months,  and 
my  months  into  weeks  —  His  finger  it  is  which  causes  them 
to  move  through  the  vault  of  the  sky  like  the  two  hands  on 
the  dial  of  a  watch.     These  various  creatures  which  fill  with 


64  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

life  the  waters,  the  air,  and  the  land,  and  these  domestic 
animals  which  make  company  for  me  even  in  my  home  — 
He  it  is  who  has  surrounded  me  with  them,  whether  to 
stimulate  my  activity  by  their  resistance  and  manifold 
antagonisms,  or  to  redouble  it  by  their  docile  and  powerful 
co-operation.  And  if,  finally,  I  myself  am  here  as  the 
master-work  of  this  creation,  able  to  stand  apart  from  it  in 
thought,  to  rend  asunder,  by  adoration,  this  chequered  veil 
which  surrounds  me  on  all  sides,  and  to  penetrate  to  the 
heart  which  beats  for  me  in  a  sphere  at  once  inexpressibly 
exalted  above  me,  and  inexpressibly  near  to  me  ;  if  I  can 
greet  with  the  title  of  Father,  Him  who  counts  the  140,000 
hairs  of  my  head  as  well  as  the  myriads  of  stars  which  run 
their  course  in  the  firmament —^  it  is  because  He  has 
designed  to  make  me  in  His  own  image,  and  to  set  within 
me  a  ray  of  His  own  Spirit. 

God  has  said !  In  these  words  is,  for  my  heart  as  well  as 
for  my  intellect,  the  true  worth  of  everything, —  of  my  own 
existence. 

2.  The  second  principal  feature  in  the  Mosaic  record  is 
the  homage  rendered  to  the  great  law  of  progress.  It  was 
towards  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages  that  men  first  began  to 
inquire  into  the  meaning  of  those  marine  shells  which  they 
discovered  upon  the  high  grounds  of  the  earth.  Men  of 
science  started  many  different  hypotheses  on  that  subject. 
Some  said  they  were  freaks  of  Nature  {lusus  iiaturcB)  ;  some 
saw  in  them  reflections  of  the  stars ;  some,  vestiges  of  the 
deluge  ;  others,  imperfect  efforts  of  the  creative  power. 
The  idea  of  a  creation  which,  having  preceded  man,  had 
advanced  by  degrees  from  stage  to  stage,  up  to  the  crown 
of  the  whole  work,  did  not  occur  to  any  one.  And  yet, 
there  it  was,  laid  up  three  thousand  years  back,  in  the 
Mosaic  record  ! 

And  if  this  law  of  progress,  already  revealed  by  Moses, 


THE    SIX    DAYS    OF    CREATION.  6^ 

reigned  with  sovereign  power  over  all  the  developments  of 
that  unconscious  existence  which  we  call  Nature,  how 
should  it  not  continue  to  control  the  progress,  moral  and 
spiritual,  of  history'  ?  Why  should  not  a  new  series  of  ''And 
God  said"  succeed  the  series  to  which  Moses  listened  in 
his  vision,  and  which  was  the  spring  and  source  of  the  work 
of  the  Creation  ?  And  if  man  does  not  actually  perceive 
this  by  his  senses,  do  not  facts  bear  clear  testimony  to  this 
succession  of  Divine  commands  ?  It  is  true  that  the  creative 
Will  has  to  deal  in  history  with  a  new  and  often  invincible 
power,  that  of  free-will  —  that  precious  spring  which  it  will 
not  break,  but  win  over  and  make  use  of.  None  the  less- 
surely  is  the  end  attained  through  long  circuitous  ways  ; 
and  in  this  so  different  medium  progress  manifests  itself  as 
well  as  in  the  midst  of  Nature. 

3.  The  final  term  of  this  progress  in  Nature,  according 
to  Moses,  is  man.  Man,  in  fact,  is  not  an  individual  one 
amongst  the  terrestrial  creatures  ;  he  is  the  ver)'  object  and 
aim  of  creation  itself.  Now,  how  should  not  a  being  so 
magnificently  privileged  continue  to  be  the  object  of  the 
solicitude  and  active  care  of  the  Creator  ?  How  should 
not  this  new  series  of  "  God  said,'^  which  originates  the 
ever-ascending  movement  of  history,  refer  itself  also  to 
him  ? 

And  here  a  grand  prospect  opens  before  us.  According 
to  the  subsequent  revelations  recorded  in  Scripture,  the 
creative  Word  of  which  Moses  speaks  is  not  only  a 
spoke7i  word  but  a  speaking  Word,  who  was  pleased  to 
create  for  himself  an  organ  of  speech,  just  such  as  He 
himself  was  to  God.  The  universe  is  His  drama,  per- 
formed for  the  glory  of  the  Father ;  and  in  this  drama 
man  is  the  chief  actor.  He  himself  has  intervened  to 
unite  himself  with  man,  to  gain  him  over  to  His  cause, 
and  make  him  a  fellow-laborer  in  His  Divine  work.     Man, 


(^  STUDIE-S    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

by  uniting  his  will  with  that  of  this  Word,  and  by  making 
his  powers  agents  of  the  creative  Will,  becomes,  instead  of 
a  creature,  himself  a  creator.  He  shows  himself  already 
such,  even  here  below,  through  the  magic  of  the  arts,  but 
that  is  but  the  prelude  to  the  new  labors  to  which  the 
Future  will  call  him.  And  as  the  prophecy  of  Caiaphas 
realized  itself  in  the  Son  of  man,*  so  will  the  word  of  the 
tempter,  with  regard  to  mankind,  become  a  reality:  "Ye 
shall  be  as  gods." 

God  said  :  "  Let  there  be  light."     And  there  was  light. 

God  said  :  "  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image."  And  man 
was  created. 

God  said  :  "  Let  eternal  truth  shine  out  in  the  person  of 
man."  f     And  Jesus  appeared. 

God  will  say  :  "  Behold,  I  make  all  things  new."  %  And 
God  shall  be  all  in  all.§ 

Such  an  end  is  the  only  one  which  could  correspond  to 
such  a  beginning,  as  this  beginning  is  alone  worthy  of  such 
an  end. 

*  S.  John  xi.  50.  }  Rev.  xxi.  5. 

t  2  Cor.  iv.  6.  §  1  Cor.  xv.  28. 


Note.  — I  am  led  in  this  work  to  this  point  of  view  :  that  the 
narrative  contained  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  the  enuncia- 
tion of  a  divine  revelation.  It  appears  to  me  impossible  to  speak 
thus  of  what  one  could  not  have  seen  or  understood  if  he  had  not 
the  certainty  of  being  in  possession  of  supernatural  instruction. 
I  am  not  ignorant  that  one  may  object  to  this  manner  of  view,  the 
analogies  between  the  contents  of  this  chapter  and  the  Chaldean 
traditions  contained  in  the  cuneiform  documents  (compare  the 
Chaldean  Genesis  by  George  Smith).  But  to  a  more  profound 
study,  the  differences  appear  far  more  considerable  than  the  resem- 
blances. The  Chaldean  account  is  a  thcogojiy.  The  subdivision 
of  the  creative  work  into  Seven  periods  is  in  harmony  with  the 
institution  of  the  Week,  as  this  itself  rests  in  its  turn  upon  the 
lunar  phases. 

Tradition  in  Genesis  begins,  it  seems  to  me.  only  with  what 
is  usually  called  the  second  narrative  of  the  Creation  (Gen.  ii. 
4-9).     Up  to  this  passage  we  have  a  pure  revelation. 

As  the  law  of  Moses  given  upon  Sinai  was  granted  to  correct, 
clarify,  and  define  the  natural  law  written  in  the  natural  conscience, 
so  the  revelation  given  to  Moses  relating  to  the  origin  of  the 
universe  has  served  to  correct  and  decide  the  content  of  the  ancient 
traditions  which  preceded  some  primary  revelation,  it  maj-  be, 
of  natural  reflection,  and  which  had  been  brought  from  Chaldea 
by  Abraham  and  preserved  even  to  the  Exodus  of  Egypt  in  the 
patriarchal  families. 

F.  GODET. 

Neuchatel,  Jul)',  1882. 


68  STUDIES    OF    CREATION   AND    LIFE. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  LIFE. 

LIFE  .  .  .  who  understands  it  ?  Who  has  seen  it  ?  It 
is  like  the  goddess  Isis,  whose  veil  may  never  be 
lifted  by  mortal  hand.  We  take  life  as  a  fact ;  we  ascertain 
its  beginning,  development,  end ;  but  we  cannot  explain  it. 
In  treating  of  Life  we  can  make  history,  not  theory. 

But  what  a  history  is  that  of  Life  !  how  unbounded  is  the 
wealth  of  the  manifestations  of  this  principle  which  every- 
where shows  itself  and  everywhere  conceals  itself  from 
sight.  To  attempt  to  give  an  account  of  life,  is  it  not  to 
pretend  to  gauge  the  Infinite  ?  All  the  elements  —  air, 
water,  earth,  are  saturated  with  life.  Throw  a  plumb-line 
into  the  ocean ;  before  it  has  reached  a  depth  of  230 
fathoms,  it  will  have  passed  through  eight  different  fauna. 
Climb  the  heights  of  Java  ;  six  times  in  a  few  hours  will  the 
flora  be  changed  as  by  magic  before  your  eyes.  Crumble 
a  piece  of  white  chalk  of  a  pound  weight ;  the  dust  in  your 
hand  will  contain  the  remains  of  10,000,000  creatures.  Place 
a  drop  of  stagnant  water  under  your  microscope  ;  you  will 
soon  have  discovered  in  it  a  population  of  infusoria  of 
which  the  number  equals  that  of  the  human  creatures  who 
move  upon  the  earth.  But  if  we  confine  ourselves  to  man, 
what  varied  systems  of  life  we  find  in  this  one  creature ! 
what  a  complication  of  activities  of  all  kinds  in  the  same 
individual ;  the  life  of  the  senses,  the  life  of  the  intellect, 
the  life  of  the  affections  and  desires,  of  the  heart  and  of 
the  will !     Pass  on  from  the  individual  to  the  family,   to 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  69 

society, — new  flames  issue  from  the  central  fire  of  life; 
industrial  and  commercial  life,  the  life  of  politics,  of  art, 
of  science,  of  morals,  of  religion  !  How  shall  we  discover 
order  in  the  manifestations  of  all  these  forms  of  life  ?  How 
discern  a  plan  amidst  this  infinite  multiplicity  ?  How 
measure  what  seems  to  set  all  measure  at  defiance  ? 

I  see  a  way ;  —  it  is  to  try  to  take  as  our  standard  the 
being  who  is  the  most  complete  epitome  of  life  as  we  know 
it  up  to  this  time,  in  whom  we  behold  the  result  of  all 
former  developments,  the  centre  of  all  its  present,  and  the 
probable  starting-point  of  all  its  future  manifestations  — 
man. 

There  is  a  saying  of  a  Greek  philosopher,  "  Man  is  the 
measure  of  all  things."  Is  not  that  the  same  as  if  he  said  : 
If  you  wish  to  discover  the  secret  of  the  development  of 
life,  study  man ;  for  life  in  general  is  only  the  expansion  of 
that  which  is  to  be  found  in  germ,  or  in  compendium,  in 
man.  Let  us,  as  an  experiment,  set  out  with  this  thought 
of  Protagoras.  CEdipus  found  in  man  the  solution  of  the 
riddle  of  the  sphinx ;  let  us  endeavor  to  find  in  him  the  key 
to  the  problem  of  life.  Let  us  examine  his  internal  con- 
stitution, and  see  if  from  this  preliminary  study  there  will 
not  spring  forth  a  ray  of  light  to  elucidate  the  process  of 
the  development  of  life  on  the  earth,  in  nature  and  in 
history. 

I. 

What  is  man  ? 

According  to  the  title  of  this  essay,  our  course  in  the 
study  of  this  question  is  marked  out  for  us  by  Nature.  We 
have  to  inquire,  first,  what  man  is,  according  to  the  Bible ; 
secondly,  what  he  is,  according  to  our  observations.  Once 
in  possession  of  the  results  of  this  twofold  inquiry,  we  shall 
be  able  to  enter  upon  the  solution  of  the  great  question 


70  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

which  we  have  proposed  to  ourselves.  Perhaps  we  may 
thus  discover  a  thread  to  guide  us  through  the  infinite 
labyrinth  of  life. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  Holy  Scripture,  man  is  a  com- 
posite being,  made  up  of  two  elements  of  opposite  nature 
and  origin.  He  is,  as  to  his  body,  formed  out  of  the  dust 
of  the  earth ;  but  in  this  body  there  exists  a  breath  of  life 
due  to  the  inspiration  of  God  himself.  "God,"  says  the 
ancient  book  Genesis,  "formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the 
ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life.''  * 
The  nature  of  the  being  which  resulted  from  the  combina- 
tion of  these  two  elements  is  described  by  the  ex- 
pression "  a  living  soul ;  "  and  thus,  continues  Genesis, 
"man  became  a  living  soul"  —  words  which  were  repro- 
duced by  S.  Paul  almost  literally.f  We  see  that  this 
expression  "  living  soul  "  is  not  applied  to  the  breath  of 
God  considered  in  itself  and  as  separate  from  the  body,  but 
that  it  describes  man  in  his  entirety,  as  the  result  of  the 
union  of  the  two  contrasted  elements.  If  Holy  Scripture, 
speaking  of  the  soul,  undeniably  puts  it  in  more  direct 
relation  with  the  breath  of  God  than  with  the  body,  it 
is  none  the  less  true  that  it  only  gives  the  name  Soul  to  the 
first  of  these  elements  when  looked  at  as  the  principle  of 
life,  and  as  the  animatijig principle  of  the  body  (afiifjia^ 
dme).  When  that  which  was  breathed  into  us  is  consid- 
ered in  itself  and  apart  from  the  body,  it  takes  the  name 
of  spirit  (rouach,  piieumd).  Thus  it  is  said  in  Ecclesiastes  : 
"  The  dust  shall  return  to  the  earth  as  it  was,  and  the  spirit 
shall  return  unto  God  who  gave  it."  And  Jesus  said,  after 
the  resurrection,  "a  spirit  (^pneiima)  hath  not  flesh  and 
bones."  %     The  spirit  then,  in  the  Bible,  means  the  breath 

*  Gen.  ii.  7. 

t  "  The  first  man  Adam  was  made  a  living  soul."  —  i  Cor,  xv.  45. 

X  Eccles.  xii.  7  ;  S.  Luke  xxiv.  39. 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  7I 

of  God  considered  as  independent  of  the  body ;  the  soul  is 
the  same  breath,  in  so  far  as  it  gives  life  to  the  body. 

By  this  we  may  understand  how  it  comes  to  pass  that 
notwithstanding  the  essential  duality  of  the  nature  of  man, 
the  soul,  in  Scripture,  is  often  distinguished  from  the  spirit ;  * 
and  even  how  it  is  that  when  S.  Paul  wishes  to  describe  the 
complete  constitution  of  the  human  being,  he  places  side  by 
side  these  three  words  —  body,  soul,  and  spirit :  "And  the 
very  God  of  peace  sanctify  you  wholly :  and  I  pray  God 
your  whole  spi?-if,  soul,  and  body  be  preserved  blameless  unto 
the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  f 

This  is  what  Scripture  teaches  us  about  the  internal 
organization  of  our  being.  What  does  observation  teach  us 
on  the  same  subject .''  What  do  I  find  in  myself  and  in  my 
fellow-beings  ? 

First,  something  which  is  seen  by  others,  that  is,  the  body  : 
secondly,  something  which  sees  others,  which  even  does 
more  than  see  them,  — looks,  and  then  reflects  upon  what 
it  has  seen,  something  to  which  the  bodily  eye  acts  but  as 
a  window  through  which  it  looks,  while  itself  invisible,  and 
behind  which  it  meditates,  —  the  soul.  Lastly,  I  find  in 
myself  something  of  higher  nature  still,  an  instrument  by 
the  help  of  which  my  being,  penetrating  beyond  the  veil  of 
all  that  either  sees  or  can  be  seen,  can  put  itself  into  direct 
contact  with  the  infinite  Author  of  so  many  marvels.  — 
the  organ  of  adoration  which  is  in  me,  the  sense  of  the 
Divine,  the  spirit. % 

As  has  been  said  by  a  Christian  philosopher  :  "  Through 
my  body  I    am  put   into    relation  with  nature   below  me ; 

*  Thus,  Heb.  iv.  12  :  "  The  word  of  God  is  .  .  .  sharper  than  any  Uvo-edged 
sword,  piercing  even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit,  and  of  the  joints 
and  marrow." 

t  I  Thess.  V.  23. 

X  "  God  whom  I  serve  with  my  spirit  in  the  Gospel  of  His  Son."  —  Rom. 
i.  9. 


72  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

through  my  soul  with  men,  my  equals,  around  me  ;  through 
the  spirit,  with  God  above  me."  *     Body,  soul,  and  spirit, 

—  three  systems  of  life,  and  nevertheless   but  one  person, 

—  this  is  man.  The  ego  may  be  compared  to  a  charioteer, 
having  three  horses  abreast  to  drive ;  not,  however,  that 
he  is  equally  related  to  the  three  elements  of  which  our 
complex  nature  is  made  up.  During  this  terrestrial  exist- 
ence, which  is  the  only  one  known  to  us  by  actual  experi- 
ence, it  is  to  the  soul  that  the  feeling  of  personal  identity 
seems  to  attach  itself  in  man.  It  is  in  it  that  the  ego  dwells  ; 
consequently  it  is  it  that  occupies  the  central  position  in  the 
life  of  man.  The  two  other  elements  seem  to  be  its  organs, 
intended  to  connect  it  with  two  worlds,  one  above,  the  other 
below  it.  By  means  of  the  body,  the  soul  holds  commu- 
nion with  material  and  terrestrial  nature ;  through  the  spirit 
it  comes  into  contact  with  the  higher  and  divine  world.  At 
the  same  time  that  it  receives  the  influences  of  these  two 
spheres,  of  the  one  through  the  channel  of  the  sensations,  of 
the  other  through  that  of  inspirations,  it  re-acts  freely  upon 
them ;  on  the  former  by  means  of  physical  labor,  on  the 
latter  through  the  no  less  energetic  and  efficacious  labor  of 
prayer.  The  passage  which  we  have  quoted  from  Ecclesi- 
astes  is  not  applicable  only  to  the  last  moment  of  human 
life.  The  body  of  man  is  at  every  instant  in  process  of 
returning  to  the  earth  from  which  it  was  taken,  to  seek  in 
it  the  nourishment  of  its  forces  and  the  materials  of  its 
activity ;  and  equally  at  every  instant  the  spirit  returns  to 
God  who  gave  it,  in  order  to  unite  itself  to  Him  by  deep 
inward  aspirations,  to  which  Divine  communications  are 
the  response.  Hovering  between  these  two  worlds,  by  the 
help  of  these  two  organs,  through  which  it  stands  related 
to  them,  the  human  soul  is  evidently  so  constituted  as  to 
establish  between  them  a  system  of  exchanges,  and  thus  to 

*  M.  de  Roiisremont. 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  73 

labor  at  the  realization  of  heaven  upon  earth,  or  (which 
comes  to  the  same  thing)  at  the  transformation  of  earth  into 
heaven. 

'  Observation  and  Holy  Scripture  agree  then  in  this,  — 
that  they  teach  us  to  see  in  man  a  spirit  united  to  a  body, 
and  which  has  become,  by  means  of  this  union,  a  soul  which 
is  the  centre  of  three  kinds  of  life ;  that  of  a  person,  free 
and  intelligent,  the  life  of  the  soul,  ox  psychical  life  ;  that  of 
the  sensations  and  of  the  organic  activities,  ox  physical  life  ; 
and  that  of  the  aspirations  and  of  heavenly  communion,  or 
spiritual  life. 

From  the  moment  of  his  birth  man  possesses  the  prin- 
ciple, or  at  least,  the  potentiality  of  these  three  kinds  of 
life.  But  they  only  make  their  appearance  in  him  success- 
ively. First,  the  bodily  life,  the  eating,  drinking,  and  sleep- 
ing of  little  children.  Then,  after  some  weeks  of  this 
existence,  which,  looked  at  superficially,  might  appear 
purely  animal,  there  shines  forth  one  day  on  the  face  of  the 
infant  that  first  smile  of  heavenly  sweetness,  which 
reveals  to  the  mother,  as  she  leans  over  him,  the  soul  which 
has  bv  deo^rees  been  awakened  bv  contact  with  her  own. 
From  the  beginning  that  soul  was  there,  but  latent ;  it  has 
only  just  begun  to  enter  upon  active  existence,  and  all  the 
richness  of  its  future  development  is  wrapped  up  in  this 
first  manifestation  of  its  presence.  At  last,  after  an  inter- 
val it  may  be  of  many  years,  when  already  the  lamp  of 
intelligence  has  been  lit  and  has  been  casting  bright  beams 
—  when  the  spring  of  the  will  has  set  itself  in  action  with 
an  energy  which  increases  day  by  day,  —  one  evening? 
after  a  day  of  happiness,  or  an  hour  of  awakened  affection 
on  his  mother's  knees  at  the  moment  of  resigning  himself 
to  sleep,  the  child  feels  his  heart  opening  to  a  love  richer 
and  purer  than  that  with  which  he  embraces  all  beings  known 
to  him,  even  his    parents  themselves.     Above    the    father 


74  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

who  has  but  just  pressed  him  to  his  heart,  and  the  mother 
who  is  even  then  giving  him  her  last  kiss,  his  eyes  seek 
the  Father  of  his  father,  the  unseen  Friend  of  his  mother. 
And,  closing  his  eyes,  he  murmurs,  "  I  thank  Thee,  my 
God  !  "  It  is  the  spiritual  life  which  has  just  been  awakened. 
The  organ  of  the  Divine,  which  belongs  to  the  essence  of 
the  sou],  has  found  its  object.  If,  in  the  future,  its  action 
is  not  restrained,  and  the  spirit  so  grows  in  strength  as  to 
control  the  life  of  the  soul  which  has  already  begun ;  if  the 
soul,  in  its  turn,  succeeds  in  taking  the  government  over 
the  bodily  life  which  is  still  further  developed,  the  true 
hierarchy  will  then  have  established  itself,  and  Divine  order 
reign  in  the  life  of  man. 

This  spectacle  has  been  seen  but  once  on  earth,  in  the 
life  of  that  Child  of  whom  it  was  said,  "  And  the  Child 
grew  and  waxed  strong  in  spirit,  filled  with  wisdom  ;  and 
the  grace  of  God  was  upon  Him.'"*^  He  increased  in 
stature ;  that  refers  to  the  bodv.  He  was  filled  with  wis- 
dom,  —  the  knowledge  of,  and  the  will  to  do,  right,  —  that 
is  the  soul.  He  was  open  to  all  the  influences  of  Divine 
grace  ;  there  was  the  spirit.  In  this  normal  subordination 
of  the  body  to  the  soul,  and  of  the  soul  to  the  spirit, 
consists  the  harmony,  the  strength,  the  health,  the  well- 
being,  the  plenitude,  the  perfection,  the  verity  of  human 
existence. 

The  life  of  each  of  these  three  elements  has  its  peculiar 
characteristics,  by  which  it  can  be  easily  distinguished  from 
the  two  others.  The  body  is ;  it  is  born,  grows,  decays, 
without  the  will  having  any  share,  properly  speaking,  in  this 
progress.  Physical  life  does  not  control  its  own  actions  ; 
it  pours  itself  forth  without  being  its  own  master.  It  is 
a  capital  which  awaits  its  proprietor. 

This  expected   proprietor  is  the  soul.     The  distinctive 

*  S.  Luke  ii.  40. 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  75 

characteristic  of  the  soul,  as  compared  with  the  body,  is  its 
consciousness,  and  its  self-government  by  means  of  the 
intelligence  and  the  free-will  with  which  it  is  endowed. 
However  much  the  soul  may  be  solicited  by  sensual 
instincts  and  blind  appetites,  it  is  not  governed  by  these 
lower  principles,  except  so  far  as  it  is  its  will  to  give  way 
to  them.  It  can,  when  it  chooses,  resist  and  conquer  them 
in  the  name  of  a  higher  law.  We  cannot  say  of  the  soul 
simply  that  it  is,  but  that  it  is  what  it  wills  to  be ;  it  be- 
comes that  which  it  decides  for  itself  to  become.  But  if  it 
is  thus  its  own  master,  this  privilege  is  not  granted  to  it  in 
order  that  it  may  alienate  its  own  rights  by  self-indulgence 
and  weakness,  nor  yet  that  it  may  keep  itself  to  itself  in  the 
narrowness  and  stiffness  of  egotism,  but  that  it  may  give 
itself  up  by  the  free  and  deliberate  impulse  of  Love.  Now 
this,  its  highest  act,  can  only  be  accomplished  by  the  help 
of  the  spirit. 

Just  as  self-government  is  the  characteristic  of  the  soul's 
life,  so  is  self-surrender  that  of  the  life  of  the  spirit. 
Under  the  dominion  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  that  breath  from 
on  high  which  comes  to  unite  itself  to  the  spirit  in  man, 
and  which  secures  him  the  mastery  over  the  soul,  and 
through  the  soul  over  the  body,  there  comes  a  time  when 
we  cr)/' :  "  O  God,  Thou  hast  made  me  free.  I  can  either 
live  to  myself,  or  give  myself  up  to  some  base  master.  I 
will  do  neither  the  one  nor  the  other.  I  offer  myself  to 
Thee  who  art  better  than  myself,  who  excellest  all  things. 
Accept  henceforth  of  my  free-will  as  an  instrument  of  Thine. 
A  sacred  fire  of  love  makes  me  Thy  servant,  and,  for  Thy 
sake,  the  servant  of  all  my  brethren."  From  this  mo- 
ment spiritual  life  not  only  exists,  but  reigns  supreme,  in 
man. 

Existence,  liberty,  holy  love,  these  are  the  character- 
istics   of   the    three    kinds    of    life  which   are  ours  either 


y6  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

actually  or  potentially,  and  whose  growth  and  development 
make  up  the  whole  sum  of  the  life  of  man. 

Having  said  this,  is  it  possible  to  conceive  of  anything 
higher.?  Apparently  not.  Above  simple  existence  there 
is  free  existence ;  above  freedom,  there  is  the  life  which, 
having  reached  the  entire  disposal  of  itself,  sacrifices  itself 
for  love.  Above  this  third  form  of  existence  we  can 
Conceive  nothing,  —  we  dare  to  say  there  is  nothing,  for 
God  is  Love. 

Through  the  possession  of  these  three  kinds  of  life,  of 
which  the  first  is  in  contact  with  the  lowest  steps  in  the 
scale  of  being,  the  last  is  an  emanation  from  the  Divine 
essence,  and  the  second  forms  the  link  between  the  two 
others,  must  not  man  be  the  summary  and  compendium  of 
life  in  the  universe  ?  And,  while  discovering  in  ourselves 
these  three  fonns  of  life,  have  we  not,  without  suspecting 
it,  hit  upon  the  secret  of  the  development  of  life  on  this 
our  planet  ? 


11. 

I.  Just  as  in  man  physical  life  is  the  starting-point,  and 
constitutes  the  medium  in  which  the  awakening  of  the 
faculties  of  the  soul  takes  place,  so  on  our  earth  an 
immense  and  luxuriant  development  of  organic  life,  vegetal 
and  animal,  preceded  the  appearance  of  the  human  soul, 
and  prepared  for  the  advent  of  the  moral  life. 

Organic  life  has  not  existed  from  eternity  on  our  planet. 
Geology  determines  for  us  in  some  measure  the  date  of  its 
beginning.  Above  certain  ancient  strata,  which  contain 
absolutely  no  vestige  either  of  vegetable  or  animal  life,  we 
come  suddenly,  in  certain  rocks  which  crop  out  in  different 
parts   of  the   globe,  upon   the  first   remains   of   organized 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  7/ 

beings  ;  these  are  algae  or  crustaceans,  and  among  the 
latter  there  is  a  kind  bearing  some  resemblance  to  our 
modern  wood-louse.  As  has  been  observed,  the  inaugura- 
tion of  life  upon  this  world's  stage  took  place  in  the  most 
modest  manner.  To  these  first  efforts  of  organized  life 
succeeded  the  grand  development  of  vegetal  life,  of  which 
the  carboniferous  strata  have  preserved  the  remains ;  rich 
stores  which,  after  so  many  millions  of  centuries,  still  supply- 
materials  to  our  industry.  During  this  period,  in  which 
vegetal  organization  so  preponderated,  animal  life  was 
slowly  carr)'ing  on  its  upward  movement.  But  it  remained 
in  the  second  rank ;  its  true  time  had  not  yet  arrived.  It 
was  only  after  the  disappearance  of  this  great  vegetal 
creation  that  animal  life  developed  itself,  in  its  turn,  with 
a  marvellous  power.  This  it  did  ni  two  successive  creations. 
The  most  ancient  is  that  of  which  the  strata  of  the  Jurassic 
epoch  contain  the  remains.  The  principal  inhabitants  of 
the  globe  in  this  age  were  amphibious  monsters,  such  as 
the  plesiosaurus,  the  ichthyosaurus,  the  megalosaurus  ;  then 
appeared  other  kinds  no  less  strange,  such  as  the  ptero- 
dactyl. To  this  first  great  creation,  which  may  be  called 
the  age  of  the  saurian  dynasties,  soon  succeeded  another, 
of  a  character  altogether  different,  of  which  the  most 
distinctive  representatives  are  the  gigantic  mammals  of  the 
tertiary  period,  such  as  the  mammoths  and  the  mastodons, 
those  colossal  creatures,  of  whom  the  last  survivors  seem 
to  have  been  contemporaneous  with  the  first  men. 

During  these  thousands  of  thousands  of  centuries  occupied 
by  the  development  of  all  life  anterior  to  man,  what  do  we 
find  on  our  globe  ?  Nothing,  answers  Science,  but  the 
unconscious  growth  of  the  plant,  the  blind  appetites  of  the 
animal,  and  the  unbridled  reign  of  sensual  life  ;  nothing 
but  physical  birth,  life,  and  death.  Not  one  creature 
conscious  of  the  object  of  its  existence,  or  in  any  degree 


78  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

responsible  for  its  actions.  The  world  is  still  closed  to 
moral  life. 

Nevertheless,  we  must  not  suppose  that  no  law  presided 
over  the  apparent  irregularities  of  this  gigantic  work.  A 
progress  may  be  discerned  in  the  succession  of  these 
animal  forms.  They  approximate,  step  by  step,  to  those 
of  the  present  age,  and  especially  to  the  human  type,  which 
is  the  ideal,  ruling  as  it  were,  though  invisibly,  all  this 
mysterious  evolution.  This  long  poem  of  the  creation 
which  modern  science  reconstructs  verse  by  verse,  canto 
upon  canto,  obeys  one  single  idea, —  that  of  aspiration  after 
man.  Not  one  of  these  formations,  not  one  of  these  strange 
creatures,  but  makes  a  step  in  advance  towards  this  goal 
aimed  at  from  the  very  beginning.  Just  that  which  in  our 
individual  life  is  the  time  passed  in  the  womb,  that  process 
of  formation  during  which,  first  as  a  molluscous,  then  an 
amphibious,  then  a  vertebrate  creature,  our  physical  being 
works  out  for  itself  the  final  organization  with  which  it  is 
to  see  the  light  of  life,  such  in  the  great  work  of  nature 
has  been  that  succession  of  animal  forms,  through  which 
physical  life  has  reached,  by  a  long  circuitous  course,  from 
its  starting-point,  the  first  bivalve,  to  its  goal  —  man. 

2.  But  just  as  in  the  human  creature  there  suddenly 
appears,  in  the  midst  of  the  functions  of  instinctive  and 
bodily  life,  as  it  were  a  ray  issuing  from  a  higher  sphere, 
the  first  indication  of  the  presence  of  the  intelligent  and 
free  soul ;  so  on  our  planet,  after  the  long-continued  labor 
of  vegetal  and  animal  life,  the  being  at  last  makes  his 
appearance,  who  coming  from  another  sphere,  is  to 
develop,  in  the  midst  of  nature,  a  life  independent  of 
nature. 

Man  is  the  true  Janus,  the  god  looking  two  ways.  On  one 
side,  he  is  closely  connected  with  nature  by  his  body.  He 
is    its    compendium ;  for,  as  we  have   just  noticed,  in   his 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  79 

embryonic  state  he  passes  through  all  its  phases.  He  is 
its  goal;  for  we  cannot  find  any  new  creation  in  the  vegetal 
or  animal  world  subsequent  to  the  appearance  of  man. 
Finally,  he  is  its  C7'own ;  for  he  is  its  chef-d'oeuvre.  There 
are,  no  doubt,  animals  stronger  than  man,  or  in  which 
some  particular  organ  is  brought  to  greater  perfection  than 
the  corresponding  organ  in  man.  But  in  no  animal  are  all 
the  senses  taken  together  so  harmoniously  developed,  and 
all  the  proportions  of  the  organism  so  admirably  adjusted 
and  combined  as  in  him.  We  feel  that  the  object  of  past 
efforts  has  now  been  reached  to  such  a  degree,  that  all  the 
progress  of  animal  life  hitherto,  seems  to  have  had  for  its 
highest  end  the  elaboration  of  this  human  body,  which  it 
was  Nature's  mission  to  offer,  as  a  perfect  servant,  to  the 
free  and  conscious  soul,  its  future  sovereio-n. 

At  the  same  time  that  man  in  the  phenomenon  of 
his  body  closes  the  whole  preceding  work  of  creation, 
he  inaugurates,  by  the  higher  life  with  which  he  is  endowed, 
a  new  chapter.  With  the  appearance  of  man  upon  the 
stage  of  the  world.  Nature  reaches  her  resting-point,  and 
History  begins.  The  violent  crises  which  had  preceded 
his  arrival  cease  by  degrees.  The  presence  of  this  creature 
of  a  higher  world  seems  to  have  the  effect  of  bringing  peace 
into  the  theatre  in  which  he  is  called  to  play  his  part. 
Some  partial  convulsions,  such  as  earthquakes,  volcanic 
eruptions,  and  a  crisis  of  a  unique  nature,  the  deluge, 
alone  recall  the  revolutions  through  which  life  had  up 
to  this  time  made  its  way.  In  the  midst  of  a  Nature,  the 
forces  of  which  are  henceforth  under  discipline,  man  begins 
his  proper  work.  He  contemplates  the  world  ;  he  feels  him- 
self distinct  from  it;  he  asserts  his  claims  as  the  heir 
of  this  beautiful  domain,  and  endeavors  to  take  possession 
of  it  by  the  twofold  labor  of  knowledge  and  action; 
he    "dresses   the   garden,"    according    to    the    Scriptural 


80  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

expression ;  he  distinguishes  between  different  objects, 
and  exercises  his  powers  in  giving  them  names ;  he  sets 
before  himself  aims,  and  finds  means  for  their  attainment ; 
he  modifies  things  in  conformity  with  his  wishes  and 
his  needs ;  he  develops  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  his 
intelligence  and  his  will,  —  those  twin-sisters,  the  loyal 
agents  of  all  our  activity.  At  the  same  time  his  feelings 
awake ;  his  heart  opens  to  the  sweet  affections  of  family 
life,  and  to  the  pure  enjoyments  of  nature.  It  is  the  drama 
of  the  soul's  life  which  is  now  beginning.  What  will  be  its 
end  ?  Nature  was  ever  aspiring  after  man,  the  free  being ; 
man  aspires  after  a  perfect  existence,  after  God.  In 
intelligence  he  possesses  an  instrument  capable  of  appro- 
priating the  secrets  of  universal  knowledge ;  in  his  free- 
will, the  power  of  being  holy  as  God  is  holy,  and  of 
becoming,  by  that  means,  the  agent  of  His  omnipotent 
will.  But  this  aim,  so  far  above  him,  is  still  for  him  lost  in 
the  dim  distance.  In  order  to  reach  it,  it  is  necessary  that 
man  should  surrender  himself ;  and  in  order  to  surrender 
himself,  he  must  be  his  own  master,  and,  first  of  all,  he 
must  conquer  himself.  But  what  is  the  enemy  he  has 
to  conquer?  The  common  notion  is,  that  the  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  our  self-government  is  the  authorit}'  of  a  mas- 
ter who  imposes  his  laws  upon  us ;  and  that  is  why 
man  makes  efforts  to  get  rid  of,  or  at  all  events  to  draw  his 
attention  away  from,  the  thought  of  God.  This  is  the 
deepest  of  delusions.  The  danger  which  threatens  our 
liberty  is  much  more  truly  the  power  of  our  lower  nature, 
of  our  sensual  appetites,  of  our  instinctive  tastes.  Here  is 
the  true  enemy  of  our  liberty,  which  we  must  overcome  for 
ourselves  by  a  series  of  victories^  of  which  each  one  is 
an  act  of  self-denial.  Let  the  natural  inclination  cause  the 
spring  of  the  will  to  give  way  for  a  moment  under  its 
pressure,  and  there  is  an  end  of  liberty ;  man  is  no  longer 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  8l 

his  own  master,  he  becomes,  Hke  an  animal,  the  slave 
of  nature.  There  remains  but  this  alternative,  to  be 
assimilated  either  to  the  gentle  sheep,  if  his  instincts  are 
benevolent,  or  to  the  voracious  saurian,  if  they  are  crueL 
Created  free,  potentially,  we  ought  to  became  so  actually^ 
by  repeated  victories  of  conscious  will  over  blind  instinct. 
In  order  to  win  this  victory,  our  will  needs  a  support, 
which  it  can  only  find  in  a  law  superior  to  that  of  the 
appetites  —  in  the  sense  of  duty.  A  state  of  conflict 
between  what  is  right  and  what  is  agreeable  is  then 
the  situation,  at  once  dangerous  and  glorious,  in  which  man 
must  be  placed  if  he  is  to  become  in  fact  what  he  is 
by  destination  —  a  being  morally  free.  Without  this 
actual  conflict  between  moral  obligation  and  nature,  man 
would,  without  even  suspecting  tlie  injury  he  was  doing 
himself,  give  way  innocently  to  his  natural  inclinations,  and 
his  liberty  would  be  forever  confiscated.  If  there  is  to  be 
an  education  of  the  human  race,  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the 
Divine  Educator  will  be,  to  provoke  a  struggle  between 
duty  and  pleasure,  between  conscious  will  and  blind 
instinct.  This  is  the  meaning  of  that  primeval  trial  to 
which  man  was  subjected.  The  Divine  command,  "Thou 
shalt  not  eat,"  was  a  protecting  fence  erected  by  a  Father's 
hand  to  keep  off  instinct,  and  withstand  its  invasions.  It 
was  the  safeguard  of  our  free-will.  What  a  crisis  was  here  ! 
If  the  conscious  will,  supported  by  the  sense  of  duty, 
triumphed  over  natural  inclination,  then,  set  free  thereby 
from  the  dominion  of  instinct,  it  would  see  opening  before 
it  a  career  of  new  conflicts  and  more  glorious  victories. 
But  if,  on  the  contrary,  inclination  triumphed,  man's 
will  was  reduced  to  slaver}' ;  and  deprived,  by  this  sub- 
jection, of  the  free  disposal  of  himself,  he  would,  under  the 
dominion  of  the  flesh,  fall  lower  and  lower.  This  crisis 
was  then  at  once  inevitable  and  decisive.     It  was  for  man, 


82  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

whatever  might  happen,  the  transition  from  a  merely  natural 
life  to  historic  development. 

If  the  Bible  record,  which  alone  has  preserved  for  us  the 
memory  of  the  first  temptation,  had  not  told  us  what  have 
been  its  consequences,  the  grievous  experience  which  ever}' 
man  undergoes  of  the  condition  of  moral  slavery  into  which 
we  are  plunged,  would  bring  us  to  the  knowledge  of  it. 
Which  of  us  has  not  many  a  time  made  an  effort  to  shake 
off  the  chains  of  egotism  and  self-love  in  which  his  free- 
will is  bound,  with  no  other  effect  than  to  make  him  more 
clearly  realize  their  weight  ?  Which  of  us  has  not  often 
heard  the  confession  of  S.  Paul,  "  I  am  carnal,  sold  under 
sin  ;  .  .  .  the  good  that  I  would  I  do  not,  but  the  evil  which 
I  would  not,  that  I  do,"  breaking  forth  from  the  depths  of 
his  broken  heart  ?  Who  has  not  uttered  the  sigh  with  which 
this  lamentable  description  of  the  Apostle's  Ijfe,  before  he 
was  made  free,  concludes:  "O  wretched  man  that  I  am  ! 
who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ?  "  *  This 
universal  experience  indicates  clearly  what  was  the  result 
of  that  great  ordeal  with  which  the  drama  of  human  history 
•opened  :  inclination  triumphed  over  duty,  and  the  will  of  man 
became  its  slave. 

Humanity  having  thus  fallen  at  the  beginning  of  its  course, 
and  missed  its  proper  destination,  God  might  have  extin- 
guished it.  But  that  would  have  been  to  retreat  in  presence 
of  the  enemy.  God  is  raised  too  high  above  sin  to  fear 
entering  into  conflict  with  it.  He  has  opened  to  man  in 
his  fallen  state,  as  He  would  have  done  to  man  victorious, 
a  pathway  of  development  for  his  various  faculties.  He  has 
Himself  called  into  action  the  powers  of  the  human  soul  in 
all  directions.  Man  was  to  learn  to  know  himself,  and  to 
dispose  of  himself,  in  the  vitiated  atmosphere  of  sin,  just  as 
he  would  have  had  to  do  in  the  pure  atmosphere  of  virtue. 

*  Rom.  vii.  14,  19,  24. 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  83 

For  his  intelligence,  though  obscured,  was  nevertheless  not 
annihilated ;  and  his  liberty,  though  fettered,  was  not  entirely 
lost.  The  noble  calling  of  primitive  man  has  remained  in 
this  respect  that  of  fallen  man  also.  Humanity  seeking 
itself :  this  would  have  been,  without  the  fall,  and  this  has 
been,  notwithstanding  the  fall,  the  inner  meaning  of  human 
history  since  the  time  of  Adam.  The  cynic  philosopher 
looking  for  man  in  broad  daylight  with  his  lantern,  is  but 
the  grotesque  symbol  of  this  sublime  reality. 

In  Ancient  Histor>'  men  often  see  nothing,  and  point  out 
nothing,  but  a  succession  of  monarchies  mutually  overturn- 
ing one  another ;  nothing  but  a  series  of  bloody  wars,  leav- 
ing behind  them  cities  in  ruin  and  nations  crushed  or 
carried  into  captivity.  Behind  these  mighty  convulsions  of 
the  ancient  world,  men  do  not  discern  the  real  history,  — 
that  of  humanity  laboring  at  the  work  of  laying  hold  of,  and 
understanding  itself,  and  travailing  in  birth  of  man,  —  the 
true  man.  As  in  the  epochs  anterior  to  man,  behind  the 
gigantic  ferns,  the  voracious  amphibians,  and  the  monstrous 
quadrupeds,  we  recognize  fundamentally  one  thing  only  ; 
nature  working  its  way  up  to  man ;  so  in  the  colossal  mon- 
archies which  one  after  another,  in  the  ages  before  Christ, 
filled  the  stage  of  history,  — in  the  Assyrian-Babylonish 
world  with  its  crushing  military  power,  —  in  the  Medo-Per- 
sian  kingdom  with  its  strong  administrative  organization, 
—  in  the  Greek  race  with  its  incomparable  artistic  and 
scientific  genius,  —  in  the  Roman  empire  with  its  powerful 
political  centralization,  —  the  true  historian  recognizes  one 
thing  :  humanity  striving  after  the  full  development  of  its 
manifold  faculties,  the  complete  mastery  of  itself  and  of 
the  world,  man  laboring  to  get  full  possession  of  himself, 
in  prospect  of  a  destiny  which  he  does  not  yet  clearly  com- 
prehend, that  of  voluntary  self-surrender. 

Certainly  it  cannot  be  said  that  four  thousand  years  w^as 


84  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

too  long  for  such  a  work.  The  human  soul  is  a  deep  well ; 
to  sound  its  depths  requires  time.  Reading  Plato  or  Soph- 
ocles shows  us  how  energetically  the  consciousness  of  man 
gave  itself  to  this  task  ;  and  when  one  thinks  it  well  over, 
even  setting  aside  the  great  confusion  and  entanglements 
brought  in  by  sin,  we  shall  not  be  astonished  at  this  space 
of  forty  centuries  granted  to  psychical  mankind  for  learning 
to  understand,  and  to  gain  the  mastery  over  itself.  But  sin 
made  this  long  period  of  preparation  still  more  necessary. 
It  was  important  that  fallen  man  should  undergo  completely 
the  humiliating  experience  of  his  condition  of  moral  misery, 
and  that  he  should  learn  in  this  severe  school  to  recognize 
a  twofold  inability  which  he  finds  in  himself  :  namely,  first, 
to  transform  in  his  own  strength  and  without  a  fresh  gift 
from  God,  his  psychical  into  spiritual  life,  even  when  the 
former  is  pure ;  secondly,  to  restore  his  natural  life  to  its 
original  purity,  when  once  it  had  been  vitiated  by  sin. 

But,  just  as  in  the  young  man  who  exerts  in  all  directions 
the  forces  of  his  natural  life,  there  is  to  be  found  in  the 
deepest  parts  of  his  being  a  spiritual  sense  which  aspires 
after  a  higher  existence,  an  organ  of  his  nature  intended 
for  intercourse  with  God ;  so  amongst  mankind  in  the 
ancient  world  there  was  one  nation  which,  while  all  the  rest 
were  exerting  the  faculties  of  their  souls  and  giving  them- 
selves assidously  to  the  cultivation  of  the  earth,  received 
the  higher  mission  of  developing  the  spiritual  aspirations 
which  raise  man  above  himself  and  the  world.  While  the 
great  nations  of  the  East  are  giving  themselves  to  the  cruel 
pleasure  of  conquest^  while  the  Phoenicians,  governed  by 
the  sense  of  the  useful,  cultivate  industry  and  commerce, 
while  the  Greeks  are  seeking  to  realize  in  their  artistic  and 
literary  masterpieces  the  ideal  of  the  beautiful  and  the  true^ 
while,  finally,  the  Romans,  following  the  guidance  of  their 
natural  gift  of  practical  wisdom,  formulate  wisely  for  cen- 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  85 

turies  to  come  the  idea  of  right,  one  nation  is  distinguished 
from  all  this  psychical  humanity  by  a  religious  tendency, 
which  makes  it  as  it  were  a  stranger  in  the  earth.  Its  chief 
concern  is  neither  conquest  nor  industry,  neither  science 
nor  the  arts,  no,  nor  even  righteousness,  in  the  purely 
human  sense  of  that  word.  That  which  occupies  its  life  is 
worship  ;  it  is  God's  claim  upon  man  ;  it  is  the  coming 
order  of  things,  in  which  this  claim  of  God  shall  be  realized 
in  the  Earth  ;  it  is  Jehovah  who  is,  and  who  is  coming ;  it 
is  His  kingdom,  holy  and  glorious,  and  His  awful  judgment. 
The  wise  men  of  this  nation  are  prophets,  its  artists  are 
psalmists,  its  heroes  labor  as  agents  of  the  Most  High. 
Raised  up  from  time  to  time  to  re-awaken  in  the  heart  of 
the  nation  that  Heaven-sent  longing  which  is  the  central 
force  of  its  life,  but  which  without  their  help  would  soon  die 
away  within  it,  these  divine  messengers  are  for  Israel  just 
what  Israel  himself  is  commissioned  to  be  for  the  rest  of 
mankind,  — the  embodiment,  in  the  midst  of  the  psychical 
life  of  the  ancient  world,  of  the  religious  faculty  inherent 
in  the  human  soul ;  of  the  spij-it  in  man  longing  to  fill  itself 
with  the  spirit  of  God.  So  that  while  God  "  suffered  all 
other  nations  to  walk  in  their  own  wavs,"  *'  to  make  them 
learn  by  experience  their  own  inability  to  reach  the  absolute 
Good,  He  places  Israel  under  the  yoke  of  an  education  at 
once  gentle  and  strong,  in  order  to  preserve  it  from  complete 
subjection  to  the  flesh.  While  prophecy  is  for  this  nation 
like  the  spur  which  makes  the  spirited  war-horse  spring  for- 
w^ard,  the  law  is  as  the  bridle  which  teaches  him  to  restrain 
his  impetuous  movements  in  view  of  the  circumstances  of 
the  present.  Heathen  nations  have,  it  is  true,  something 
analogous  to  this.  Conscience  is  with  them  "  a  law  written 
in  their  heart,"  t  and  from  the  midst  of  them,  as  well  as 
from  the  heart  of  creation  in  general,  there  springs  a  sigh 

*  Acts  xiv.  16.  t  Rom.  ii.  15. 


S6  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

after  that  state  of  perfect  liberty,  for  which  man  feels  him- 
self to  have  been  made.  But  outside  of  Israel  these  are 
but  spontaneous  and  ineffectual  reactions  of  the  moral 
nature  of  man  ;  whilst  the  corresponding  forces  in  Israel, 
the  Law  and  Prophecy,  are  the  results  of  a  Divine  educa- 
tion, actual  and  reaching  its  object.  It  is  the  same  differ- 
ence as  that  between  an  invalid  under  medical  treatment, 
and  one  uncared  for.  Israel  is  the  organ  which  God  him- 
self trained  for  the  exercise  of  the  spiritual  sense  in  ancient 
humanity  ;  this  constitutes  the  direct  preparation  for  the 
future  advent  of  the  spiritual  life ;  while  the  heathen,  left 
to  themselves,  are  but  a  negative  and  indirect  preparation 
for  it. 

Let  us  suppose  man  to  have  been  without  sin ;  then  the 
result  of  these  four  thousand  years  of  preparation  would 
have  been  a  humanity  so  completely  understanding  and 
mastering  itself  as  to  be  able  to  surrender  itself,  and  to 
cast  at  the  feet  of  its  God  the  crown  of  a  liberty  which  has 
been  acquired  by  holiness  ;  and  God  would  have  immedi- 
ately responded  to  this  homage  by  the  gift  of  His  Spirit. 
Sin  has  not  absolutely  defeated  this  result,  but  it  has 
profoundly  altered  the  form  under  which  it  has  been 
reached.  Through  a  long  experience  of  its  sinfulness, 
humanity  has  understood  its  own  inability  to  realize  for 
itself  its  own  intended  destiny ;  namely,  to  find  God,  and 
unite  itself  to  Him.  But  it  has  none  the  less  sighed,  in 
the  persons  of  its  noblest  representatives,  for  this  glorious 
consummation.  It  has  implored,  as  it  were  upon  its  knees, 
that  Divine  help  of  which  it  so  profoundly  felt  its  need.  It 
cried  by  the  mouth  of  Isaiah :  "  O  that  Thou  wouldst 
rend  the  heavens  and  come  down."  *  The  Spirit  did  not 
present  himself  to  its  imagination  as  a  bridegroom  imposed 
upon  it  by  force,  but  as  its  betrothed,  worthy  of  deepest 

*  Isa.  Ixiv.  I. 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  S^ 

love.  And  at  the  critical  moment  it  found  expression  in 
those  sublime  words,  in  which  the  young  Jewish  heroine, 
as  its  representative,  answered  the  Divine  call :  "  Behold 
the  handmaid  of  the  Lord  ;  be  it  unto  me  according  to 
Thy  word."  *' 

3.  This  intense  longing,  and  this  courageous  self-sur- 
render, fruit  of  the  long-sustained  working  of  God's  Spirit 
upon  Israel,  were  the  seeds  of  the  coming  era  —  of  the  third 
phase  in  the  history  of  life.  The  new  fact  which  then 
made  its  appearance  —  the  existence  of  the  Church,  indi- 
cated the  advent  of  a  new  period,  that  of  the  life  of  the 
Spirit,  on  our  earth. 

St.  Paul  has  called  Jesus  Christ  the  .econd  Adam,  and 
the  /^i-/ Adam.f  There  is  a  great  wealth  of  thought  for  the 
heart  and  mind  of  the  believer  in  these  two  epithets.  As 
the  first  Adam  had  constituted  the  close  here  below  of  the 
development  of  physical  life  and  the  opening  of  that  of  the 
life  of  the  soul,  so  Jesus  Christ  closes  the  development  of 
psychical  life,  and  inaugurates  the  advent  of  the  life  of  the 
Spirit.  Adam  was  a  living  soul,  cast  by  God  into  the 
midst  of  the  convulsions  of  nature,  to  bring  into  the 
physical  creation,  order,  harmony,  and  peace.  Jesus  Christ 
the  life-giving  Spirit,  comes  from  heaven  to  calm  the 
tempests  of  the  human  soul.  He  brings  order  and  harmony 
into  the  exercise  of  our  faculties,  and  in  our  individual  hfe, 
domestic  and  social,  He  makes  the  serenity  of  Divine 
order  reign. 

This  second  Adam  is  also  the  last  Adam.  There  is, 
after  Him  nothing  higher  to  look  for ,  "  That  eternal  life 
which  was  with  the  Father,  was  manifested  unto  us,"  %  says 
St.  John.  Jesus  is  the  Divine  life  realized  in  man,  and 
offering  itself,  in  an  accessible  and  tangible  form,  to  be 
participated  in  by  all  that  is  called  man  ;  "  the  Word  was 
*  S.  Luke  i.  38  t  i  Cor.  xv.  45,  47.  X  i  John  L  2. 


88  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

m3.de  flesh.^^  *  To  drink  of  this  fountain  is  to  partake  of 
the  Divine  Life  in  the  measure  in  which  it  is  accessible  to 
the  creature. 

How  did  this  supreme  Life  make  its  appearance  ?  How 
did  it  develop  itself  in  a  man  ?  How  did  it  communicate 
itself  to  mankind  ? 

It  was  under  the  most  modest  forms,  as  we  have  seen, 
that  physical  life  first  made  its  appearance  upon  our  planet. 
It  was  also  under  circumstances  of  the  deepest  humility 
that  the  advent  of  the  life  of  the  Spirit  took  place,  in  the 
person  of  Jesus  Christ.  A  manger  received  the  little  Child 
in  whom  that  treasure  was  virtually  contained ;  a  carpen- 
ter's shop  was  the  witness  of  the  labors  of  the  growing  Boy ; 
by  Baptism,  the  symbol  of  impurity  and  death.  He  passed 
from  youth  into  the  stage  of  manhood,  and  that  was  also 
the  means  through  which  He  entered  upon  the  higher 
sphere  which  it  was  His  mission  to  open  to  all  others ;  an 
upper  room,  its  doors  shut  for  fear,  was  the  centre  whence 
the  new  life  streamed,  and  whence  it  has  been  propagated 
since  the  day  of  Pentecost  through  generations  and 
centuries. 

This  new  life  only  grew  by  degrees  even  in  Him  who 
was  the  first  depositary  of  it,  and  who  is  forever  its  eternal 
principle.  Assuredly  He  was  master  of  himself  at  the 
moment  when,  by  His  incarnation,  He  gave  us  His  Divine 
person  as  a  gift.  This  act  of  self-devotion,  the  type  and 
source  of  all  Christian  self-devotion,  was  that  of  a  free 
being.  But,  once  a  man,  He  was,  like  all  other  men, 
subject  to  the  law  of  moral  progress ;  and  in  order  to  gain 
self-mastery,  even  He  had  to  begin  by  conquering  himself. 
This  was  his  work  during  the  thirty  years  He  spent  in  the 
obscurity  of  Nazareth.  He  was  searching  into  His  own 
nature,  and  foreseeing  what  He  should  be.     In  the  Holy 

*  S.  John  i.  14 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  89 

Scriptures  He  saw  prefigured  His  person  and  His  work  ; 
in  them  He  traced  the  outlines  of  a  mission  which  He  per- 
ceived to  be  His  own.  It  was  as  a  sealed  letter,  an 
instruction  drawn  up  beforehand  by  His  Father,  which  was 
not  to  be  opened  till  He  was  in  open  sea,  in  the  midst  of 
the  struggles  and  storms  of  His  earthly  existence.  From 
the  part  of  His  life  which  is  known  to  us,  it  is  easy  to 
argue  that  the  parts  which  are  unknown  were  not  free  from 
painful  trials.  The  prayer  which  ever  accompanied  the 
tears  He  shed  for  the  sins  of  those  around  Him,  was  one 
of  the  principal  commentaries  which  made  Him  by  degrees 
understand  those  sacred  books  which  were  so  full  of  Him. 
Thus  did  He  reach  the  time  of  His  moral  maturity. 
During  these  first  thirty  years  He  had,  as  it  were,  recap- 
itulated in  himself  all  the  labor  of  human  kind  in  the 
preceding  ages.  The  moment  when  this  work  of  prepara- 
tion was  completed  was  that  in  which  the  voice  of  John  the 
Baptist  called  upon  all  the  people  to  purify  themselves  by 
baptism,  in  order  to  prepare  for  the  near  approach  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Jesus,  by  participating  in  this  sacred  rite 
with  His  people,  brought  into  it  what  He  had  acquired, 
or  rather  what  He  had  in  his  own  person  become,  through 
His  whole  preceding  development ;  the  psychical  man 
complete,  the  pure  and  living  temple  for  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  was  looking,  that  He  might  therein  descend  into 
humanity.  If  Jesus  was  in  himself  the  sum  and  crown  of 
the  whole  preceding  life  of  humanity,  considered  morally 
and  intellectually,  more  especially  was  He  the  expression  of 
the  Jewish  conscience,  of  that  exquisite  moral  sense  which 
was  the  fruit  of  the  discipline  of  the  Law,  and  of  the  ardent 
aspirations  kindled  in  men  by  the  word  of  prophecy.  And 
when,  at  the  moment  when  Jesus  descended  into  the 
Jordan  to  receive,  himself,  in  His  own  way.  His  consecra- 
tion to  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  depths  of  His  heart 


90  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

opened,  and  His  prayer  went  up  to  heaven,  heaven  made 
answer ;  the  Spirit  of  God  descended  without  measure  upon 
this  unique  Being,  whose  mission  it  was  to  communicate 
Him  to  mankind.  That  is  a  beautiful  thought  which 
is  put  by  one  of  the  apocr}'phal  Gospels  into  the  mouth  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  at  this  moment :  "  My  Son,  in  all  the 
prophets  I  have  been  looking  for  Thy  coming,  that  in  Thee 
I  might  find  My  rest ;  for  Thou  art  My  rest.  Thou  art  My 
first-born  Son  who  reignest  for  evermore."*  Immediately, 
under  the  impulse  of  the  Spirit,  with  Whom  His  own  will 
had  just  identified  itself,  Jesus  made  himself  an  offering, 
first  to  God,  by  His  victory  over  the  temptation  in  the 
wilderness  ;  then  to  Israel,  by  His  earthly  ministry ;  lastly, 
to  the  world,  by  His  expiatory  sacrifice  ;  realizing  thus  the 
most  generous  and  the  most  complete  act  of  self-surrender 
ever  accomplished  by  human  being,  or  that  can  possibly  be 
conceived.  Absolute  self-devotion  to  that  which  is  greatest, 
—  God;  and  at  the  same  time  to  that  which  is  meanest  and 
most  abject,  —  the  worst  of  sinners  ;  such  is  human  life  as 
we  behold  it  in  Jesus,  and  as  by  a  Divine  act  He  has  been 
able  to  make  it  in  His  own  person.  And  this  is  indeed 
that  spiritual  life  of  which  by  nature  the  human  soul 
possesses  the  capacity,  the  feeling,  the  presentiment,  and 
instinct,  but  which  it  never  succeeds  in  realizing,  except  by 
that  wedded  union  with  the  Holy  Spirit  which  first 
consummated  itself  in  the  Christ. 

After  having  realized  this,  the  highest  form  of  life, 
Jesus  re-ascended  into  His  glory,  not  to  abandon  humanity 
to  itself,  and  leave  it  nothing  but  the  sweetest  and  purest 
of  memories,  but  to  labor  at  raising  it  to  Himself,  by 
pouring  upon  it,  from  out  of  His  own  glorified  existence, 
that   perfect   life   which    He    has    himself    realized   here" 

*  Gospel  of  the  Nazarenes,  quoted  by  Jerome. 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  QI 

below  *     The  scene  of  the  effusion  of  this  spiritual  life  is 
the  Church,  which  is  therefore  called  the  Body  of  Christ.'^ 
The  atonement  completed  by  Christ  gives  to  all  a  right  to 
the  Divine  forgiveness ;  and  the  forgiveness  thus  obtained 
gives   to  each    a   new  claim,  the   claim   to  the  possession 
of   the    Spirit.       Since    the    day  of    Pentecost,  Jesus   has 
never  ceased  granting  this  highest  favor  to  every  one  who 
can  press  his  claim  upon  Him.     After  having  expended 
upon  us  His  earthly  lifetime  in  the  course  of  His  ministry, 
shed   for  us  His  blood  in   His   death,   He  by  His  Spirit 
makes  us  sharers  in  His  own  glorified  and  living  person- 
ality.     The  Holy  Communion  is  the  visible  expression  of 
this    supreme   gift.     But  the  possession  of   the    Spirit   is 
so  profoundly  one  with  our  own  personal  life,  and  presup- 
poses so  complete  a  surrender  of  our  whole  being,  that  it 
must  imply  an  absolutely  free  act  of  our  will.     Accordingly, 
God,  who  did  not  ask  our  consent  when  He  was  pleased 
to  bestow  upon  us  the  life  of  our  body  and  that  of    our 
soul,  because  these  gifts  were  as  yet  only  the  vocation  to  the 
higher  gift,  acts  with  more  reserve  when  about  to  bestow 
this  last   benefit.     He   limits  himself   to  offering  it  to  us 
when  the  favorable  moment  has  arrived ;  that  is  the  object 
of  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  through  the  instrumentality 
of  the  Church  and  of  the  ministry  which  she  nurtures  in  her 
bosom.     If  there  be  a  Church  constituted  objectively,  it  is 
in  order  that  the  Spirit  should  be  offered  to  all,  while  yet 
not  forced  upon  any  one.     Each  of  us  has  received   the 
gift  of  earthly  life  solely  with  a  view  to  this  higher  destina- 
tion—to receive  through  the  Spirit  the  only  life  worthy  of 
the  name.      If  our  souls  are  free  and  intelligent,  it  is  that 
they  may  become  voluntarily  the  abodes  and  agents  of  the 

*  S.  John  xvii.  2 :  V  As  Thou  hast  given  Him  power  over  all  flesh,  that  He 
should  give  eternal  life  to  as  many  as  Thou  hast  given  Him," 
t  Eph.  i.  23. 


92  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

Holy  Spirit,  and,  through  Him,  of  Jesus  Christ  glorified. 
If  there  be  in  us  a  man,  it  is  in  order  that  that  man  may- 
manifest  himself  in  the  likeness  of  the  Man-God.*  To 
thrust  away  from  us  this  life  of  thd*  Heavenly  Christ, 
in  order  to  keep  our  own  psychical  life,  amounts  to  this,  — 
that  when  the  doors  of  a  palace  are  opening  before  us,  we 
choose  to  shut  ourselves  up  in  a  prison.  Or  rather,  it  is  an 
act  of  suicide  of  the  most  senseless  and  cruel  kind. 
To  surrender  ourselves  to  the  Spirit  is  to  find  ourselves ; 
but  in  His  presence  to  keep  ourselves  for  ourselves  is  to  be 
lost.  Jesus  said  this  in  those  words  often  repeated  by  Him, 
which  express  the  ultimate  law  of  every  life  which  is  truly 
human:  " Whosoever  will  save  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and 
whosoever  will  lose  his  life  for  My  sake  shall  find  it.f 

4.  During  innumerable  centuries,  physical  life  had  been 
freely  displaying  itself  in  Nature.  In  Adam  was  formed  a 
bridge  between  this  first  form  of  existence  and  one 
more  excellent,  that  of  the  free  soul.  During  forty  cen- 
turies did  this  latter  form  carry  on  its  evolution  in  mankind 
of  old.  Then  at  last  came  Jesus  Christ,  who  effected  the 
transition  from  the  life  of  the  soul  to  one  more  perfect 
still  —  that  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  the  human  soul.  For 
two  thousand  years,  the  flame  of  this  spiritual  life  has 
been  burning  in  the  Church,  propagating  itself  in  every 
direction,  wherever  it  finds  in  mankind  the  material 
needed  for  its  support.  Have  we  reached  the  end  ?  Is 
possibility  exhausted  ?  It  would  seem  so  ;  for  no  higher 
form  of  life  than  that  which  Jesus  realized  in  himself,  and 
which  He  communicates  to  us  from  heaven,  is  conceivable. 
And  yet,  if  it  were  so,  the  cycle  would  not  be  closed.     No 

*  Rom.  viii.  29 :  "  Conformed  to  the  image  of  His  Son,  that  He  might  be 
the  first-born  among  many  brethren."  V.  17  :  "  Heirs  of  God,  and  joint  heirs 
with  Christ." 

t  S.  Matt.  xvi.  25. 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  93 

development  whatsoever  is  completed  until,  having  reached 
its  closing  stage,  it  takes  up  once  more  its  beginning, 
in  order  to  lift  it  to  the  same  height.  There  is  a  profound 
saying,  "  The  future  is  but  a  return  to  the  past."  *  Arrived 
at  the  summit  of  spiritual  life,  it  is  with  no  look  of  disdain 
that  man  turns  back  to  contemplate  the  lower  stages  of 
existence  through  which  he  has  ascended.  Even  the  mere 
physical  life  with  which  he  began,  inspires  him  with  no 
feeling  of  shame.  Does  not  that  also  bear  the  impress  of 
a  Divine  wisdom  ?  Contempt  for  the  body  is  no  sign  of  a 
true  and  healthy  spirituality.  Jesus,  set  free  from  His 
body  by  death,  did  not  leave  it  forgotten  behind  Him.  He 
reclaimed  it  from  the  sepulchre,  and  restored  it  to  life  by 
the  Resurrection.  Even  at  the  Ascension,  on  re-entering 
His  original  life  of  Divinity,  He  did  not  depose,  but 
transformed  it,  and  fitted  it  to  become  the  organ  of  Omni- 
potence, and  of  that  Divine  life  into  the  possession  of  which 
He  was  about  to  re-enter  ;  "  /;/  Him  dwelleth  all  the  fulness 
of  the  Godhead  bodil}\^^  STiys  St.  Paul.t  Was  it  not  one  pur- 
pose of  the  transfiguration  to  give  us  a  presentiment  of  this 
mystery  of  glory?  If  a  grown  man  cannot  contemplate 
unmoved  the  cradle  in  which  his  eyes  first  saw  the  light,  the 
child  of  God,  having  reached  the  state  of  holiness,  will  not 
despise  the  body  in  which  his  soul  first  awoke  to  the  light 
of  individual  consciousness,  and  in  which,  at  a  later  period, 
his  spirit  became  a  partaker  of  the  heavenly  life.  Even 
here  below,  when  the  Holy  Spirit  has  made  a  temple  of 
the  human  body,  does  He  not  ennoble  its  features  ?  Does 
He  not  illumine  its  expression,  renew  its  failing  strength, 
and  give  support  to  its  weakness  ?  Now  in  the  human 
body  there  is  contained  a  germ,  which  begins  to  grow, 
through  our  union  with  the   Holy  Spirit,  amidst  the  very 

*  M.  Charles  Prince,  Professor  in  Neuchatel  College, 
t  Col.  ii.  9. 


94  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

dissolution  of  the  bod}'.  So  will  that  new  organ  of  the  spirit 
form  itself,  which  St.  Paul  in  his  bold  manner  of  speech 
calls  the  spiritual  body.  In  the  same  way  that  our  earthly 
body  is  here  below  the  organ  of  the  soul,  which  is  the  seat  of 
our  personality,  so  will  the  spiritual  body  be  the  organ  of 
the  spirit^  when  that  shall  have  become  our  personal  life. 
"  There  is,"  says  St.  Paul,  "  a  natural  body  (alive  with  the 
life  of  a  soul),  and  there  is  a  spiritual  body,"  (serving  as  an 
organ  to  the  spirit).^  Now,  if  by  His  action  on  this  mortal 
body,  the  Holy  Spirit  already  at  times  works  wonders  even 
here  on  earth,  what  will  He  not  make  of  the  new  body, 
His  own  creation.  His  masterpiece  ?  St.  Paul  compares 
our  present  body  to  a  "  bare  grain,"  and  the  future  body 
to  the  plant,  perfect  in  form  and  color,  which  springs  from 
this  imperfect  germ  dropped  into  the  earth.  How  great, 
then,  will  be  the  splendor  and  vitality  of  this  spiritual 
body ! 

But  this  is  not  all.  As  in  our  present  body  we  see  the 
two  systems,  animal  and  vegetable,  which  are  around  us, 
converging,  and  in  them  Nature,  as  it  is  on  earth,  in  its 
entiret}^ ;  so  will  the  future  body  be  the  centre  of  a  nature 
renewed  and  glorified,  freed  from  the  law  of  vanity  and 
death.  The  ideal  after  which  are  instinctively  yearning, 
not  men  only,  but,  as  St.  Paul  says  all  creatines ^  will  be 
realized.  And  physical  existence,  so  coarse  in  appearance, 
which  has  been  the  spring  and  source  of  life  on  our  planet, 
being  taken  up  as  its  fellow-worker  by  the  power  of  the 
Spirit,  shall  become  the  glorious  theatre  of  the  activity  and 
of  the  virtues  of  its  new  master,  the  spiritual  body. 

Matter  is  not  necessarily  the  imprisoner  of  the  spirit, 
nor  a  hinderance  to  its  operations.  We  see  this  in  the 
supple  and,  as  we  might  say,  omnipotent  hands  of  the 
artist;  we  see  it  in  the  instrument  by  which  he  effects  such 

t  I  Cor.  XV.  44. 


THE    HISTORY    OF    LIFE.  95 

marvellous  results.  Now  art  is  but  the  prelude  to  that 
glory  which  is  one  day  to  become  the  crown  and  splendor 
of  holiness. 

To  sum  up  what  has  been  said.  On  the  theatre  of 
Nature,  unconscious  life  has  been  exercised,  a  slave  to  the 
senses.  On  the  stage  of  histor}^,  the  human  soul  has 
displayed  the  riches  of  life  self-conscious  and  free.  In  the 
Church  (understanding  this  word  in  its  most  spiritual  sense) 
there  grew  up,  and  has  since  developed  itself,  a  new  thing, — 
the  life  of  holy  love,  realized  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  Him 
communicated  to  us.  Finally,  in  that  supreme  abode  which 
we  call  heaven,  this  perfect  life,  divine  in  its  essence, 
human  in  its  form,  will  expand  and  radiate  through  matter 
then  glorified.  Such  is  an  outline  of  the  development  of 
life,  as  we  may  conceive  it  by  adapting  our  own  observation 
of  facts  to  the  Scriptural  revelations.  How  can  we  con- 
template without  admiration  this  plan,  conceived  before 
time  was,  and  of  which  the  magnificent  result  is  to  bring 
time  back  to  eternity  ?  How  not  recognize  here  the 
thought  of  Him  who  is  "  wonderful  in  counsel,  and 
excellent  to  working  ?  "  *  How  resist  crying  out  with  the 
Psalmist,  "  Lord,  how  great  are  Thy  works.  Thy  thoughts 
are  very  deep  ? "  St.  Paul  has  summed  up  this  divine  plan 
in  those  few  words,  the  key  to  the  riddle  of  man's  histor}', 
and  the  text  of  all  Christian  philosophy  :  f 

"  First  that  which  is  natural  ; 
Afterwards  that  which  is  spiritual." 

*  Isa.  xxviii,  29.  f  i  Cor.  xv.  46. 


g6  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 


ANGELS. 

THE  subject  which  is  now  to  occupy  us  has  its  attrac- 
tions, but  also  its  dangers.  The  veil  of  mystery 
which  enshrouds  it  constitutes  its  attraction.  The  danger 
to  which  we  are  exposed  in  treating  it,  is  that  of  putting 
our  trust,  while  upon  ground  which  belongs  to  things  divine, 
in  a  guide  not  adequately  qualified,  imagination. 

In  order  as  much  as  possible  to  avoid  this  danger,  we 
shall  endeavor  to  draw  from  Nature  any  inductions,  and  from 
History  any  analogies  which  they  may  offer  ;  then,  putting 
these  results  into  connection  with  those  contained  in  the 
book  of  Divine  Revelation,  we  shall  seek  to  throw  light 
upon  these  several  sources  of  knowledge  by  comparing  each 
with  the  other.  Might  I  but  succeed  in  rescuing  this  inter- 
esting subject  out  of  the  obscurity  in  which  it  is  lost  in  so 
many  minds  !  It  is  no  doubt  a  secondary,  but  still  an  im- 
portant, part  which  these  beings,  who  are  to  be  the  subject 
of  our  study,  play  in  the  grand  drama  of  the  work  of  God 
ujDon  earth. 

Four  points  will  require  our  attention  :  — 

1.  The  existence  and  nature  of  the  angels. 

2.  The  manner  of  their  development. 

3.  The  relations  in  which  they  stand  to  each  other. 

4.  Their  relation  to  us. 

The  existence  of  angels  cannot  be  questioned  by  anyone 
who  holds  fast  to  the  contents  of  the  Bible  revelation.  But 
for  any  one  who  rejects  these  revelations,  or  who  hesitates 


ANGELS.  97" 

to  accept  all  that  they  teach,  may  we  not  find  some  reasons 
fitted  to  induce  him  to  admit  the  real  existence  of  an  order 
of  beings  in  some  respects  superior  to  man  ? 

We  see  before  us  on  earth  three  orders  of  living  things 
—  plants,  animals,  men.  If  we  once  arrive  at  the  percep- 
tion that  these  three  classes  of  creatures  are  the  first  steps 
of  the  ladder  in  a  system  of  beings,  of  which  the  fourth  and 
final  step,  though  missing  in  fact  here  on  earth,  is  none  the 
less  imperatively  demanded  as  necessar)'  in  theory ;  would 
it  not  follow  from  this,  with  great  probability,  that  this 
superior  order  which  is  thus  indispensable  to  the  harmony 
of  the  whole,  does  really  exist  in  some  domain  of  creation 
inaccessible  to  our  present  faculties  ?  This  is  precisely  the 
conclusion  for  which  we  are  about  to  plead. 

Let  us  notice  the  relation  in  which  the  individual  stands 
to  the  species  in  the  three  orders  of  living  things  which  are 
before  us  in  Nature,  and  we  shall  see  whether  this  relation 
does  not  lead  us  naturally  to  suppose  that  that  superior 
order  which  we  have  imagined  must  exist. 

In  the  vegetable  world,  species  only  has  any  proper  exist- 
ence ;  the  individual  specimen  is  but  its  representative, 
nothing  more,  nothing  less.  If  we  put  a  rose  into  the  ele. 
ment  proper  for  its  growth,  it  will  there  become  that  only 
which  any  other  rose  would  have  become  if  placed  under 
the  same  conditions.  Language  applies  to  individuals  in 
the  plant  world  the  term  specwiens.  This  is  because  they 
are  to  the  species  what  the  several  impressions  of  a  photo- 
graph are  to  the  7iegative,  which  they  reproduce  precisely. 
Thus,  properly  speaking,  there  is  but  ojie  rose,  —  the  species 
rose,  which  lives  on,  and  is  continually  re-born  in  the  transi- 
tory apparitions  by  which  it  becomes  visible  to  us.  A  plant 
may  be  compared  to  some  single  and  indivisible  property, 
where  each  part-owner  lives  upon  the  whole  and  for  the  whole. 
In  the  plant  world  the  individual  as  such  has  no  existence, 
but  the  species  only. 


98  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

In  the  animal  world  the  species  is  still  the  essential  thing, 
l)iit  the  individual  has  already  now  become  an  independent 
reality  by  the  side  of,  and  above  it.  Individuality  begins 
to  show  itself  above  ground ;  but,  nevertheless,  the  animal 
is  governed  by  instinct.  Now  what  is  instinct  but  the  power 
of  the  species  manifested  in  the  individual  ?  Subjected  to 
this  blind  and  irresistible  law,  the  individual  is  incapable  of 
drawing  from  its  own  being  an  act  of  free-will,  or  of  making 
a  resolution  which  shall  be  properly  its  own.  Hence  the 
absence  of  responsibility,  and  hence  also  the  want  of  prog- 
ress in  the  animal  world.  The  lion  of  our  day  does  exactly 
what  his  ancestors  did,  and  what  his  descendants  will  do  in 
the  remotest  future.  If  man  does  not  hold  out  a  helping 
hand  to  him  by  training,  the  animal  will  tread  over  and  over 
again  the  circle  marked  out  for  him  by  instinct.  The  indi- 
\idual  lives,  it  is  true,  but  as  the  slave  of  species.  His 
gaoler  does,  indeed,  allow  him  to  take  a  few  steps  in  his 
prison-yard,  but  never  to  leap  its  walls. 

The  transition  from  the  animal  to  the  man  is  marked  by 
a  complete  reversal  in  the  relations  of  the  individual  to  the 
species.  The  latter  does  still  exist  in  man.  We  speak, 
not  without  reason,  of  hmiian  kind.  Each  man  owes  his 
existence  to  his  parents,  and  it  is  that  which  constitutes 
species.  With  men,  as  well  as  with  animals,  species  is  that 
primordial,  obscure,  mysterious  material,  out  of  which  each 
individual  being  shapes  itself.  But  —  and  herein  consists 
the  reversal  of  the  relation  —  the  law  of  instinct,  even  while 
exerting  its  power  in  man,  does  not  govern  him  absolutely. 
Instinct  is  his  first  master,  but  by  no  means  his  eternal 
tyrant.  Man  can  struggle  against  his  natural  appetites  ;  he 
can  even,  with  the  help  of  conscience  and  reflection,  over- 
come the  solicitations  of  his  lusts,  and  sacrifice  them  on  the 
altar  of  moral  obligation.  The  prisoner  can  force  the  doors  of 
his  cell,  and  escape  out  of  his  prison.     And  because  he  can, 


ANGELS. 


99 


he  ought  to  do  so.  The  individual  only  becomes  properly 
a  man,  in  proportion  as  he  exercises  this  glorious  preroga- 
tive. If  he  neglects  to  do  so,  he  remains  on  the  level  of 
the  lower  animals,  and  ends  by  even  surpassing  them  in 
brutality.  He  is  punished  by  becoming  a  victim  to  those 
instincts  over  which  he  was  intended  to  rule.  From  this 
faculty  of  self-governmerit  springs  the  power  of  progress  in 
mankind.  Instinct  —  the  cradle  and  temporary  guardian 
of  the  individual  —  gives  but  the  starting-point  to  his  devel- 
opment. Once  he  has  broken  down  this  barrier  by  an  act 
of  reflective  will,  man  sees  opening  before  him  a  pathway 
of  progress  towards  perfection,  both  for  the  individual  and 
for  the  race. 

We  see,  then,  that  species  is  not  extinct  in  man,  but  the 
individual  has  power  to  free  himself  from  its  bondage,  and 
it  is  his  noble  mission  to  reach  the  dignity  of  personality 
by  subjecting  the  promptings  of  a  blind  and  natural  instinct 
to  the  higher  claims  of  morality.  Man  is  no  longer  a  mere 
specimen  of  a  class,  he  is  a  person. 

On  comparing  these  three  forms  of  existence  which  we 
perceive  in  nature  around  us,  there  would  appear  to  be  evi- 
dently a  law  by  which  the  preponderance  of  individuality 
bears  an  ever-increasing  proportion  to  that  of  a  species. 
In  the  first  stage,  individuality  has  no  existence ;  in  the  sec- 
ond it  does  exist,  but  is  still  in  bondage ;  in  the  third  it 
comes  forth  free,  and  able  to  effect  its  entire  deliverance 
from  species.  May  there  not  be  a  fourth  state,  superior 
even  to  this  last,  and  rendering  the  whole  system  com- 
plete ? 

In  the  science  of  mathematics,  if  three  terms  are  given, 
we  can  make  out  the  fourth  with  perfect  certainty.  The 
two  middle  terms,  being  known,  enable  us  to  argue  from 
the  first  to  the  last  which  is  unknown.  May  we  not  then 
say  in  like  manner  that,  among  living  creatures,  animals  and 


# 

100  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

men  are  the  two  middle  terms  by  the  help  of  which  we  can 
rise  from  the  first*  term  of  the  series,  the  plant,  to  another 
and  still  unknown  one,  the  very  opposite  and  complement 
of  the  first,  that  is,  the  angel  ? 

Having  established  the  fact  of  these  three  forms  of  being  ; 
species  without  individuality ;  individuality  under  bondage 
to  species ;  species  overpowered  by  individuality  —  what 
have  we  remaining  for  the  fourth  form  ?  Evidently,  indi- 
viduality without  species.  This  formula,  which  seems  at 
first  sight  strange  to  us,  yet,  on  reflection,  points  to  and 
describes  a  method  of  existence  much  more  simple  than 
our  own  :  an  order  of  beings,  amongst  whom,  species  having 
ceased  to  exist,  each  individual  owes  his  existence  no  longer 
to  parents  like  himself,  but  immediately  to  the  creative  will. 
Should  we  not  then  have  exactlv  the  angel  ? 

This  method  of  existence  is  precisely  that  which  is  attrib- 
uted to  these  mysterious  beings  in  Holy  Scripture.  In 
speaking  of  us,  the  term  son  of  man  is  frequently  used,  but 
the  angels  are  called  sons  of  God,  never  sons  of  angels. 
Why  should  this  be,  except  for  this  reason,  that  they  owe 
their  existence  to  a  direct  act  of  creation,  and  not  to  the 
ordinary  means  of  descent  ?  In  the  most  explicit  revelation 
which  we  have  in  Holy  Scripture  on  the  nature  of  angels, 
our  Lord  makes  a  remarkable  comparison  between  the 
angels  and  the  saints  in  glory.  "The  children  of  this 
world,"  He  says,  "marr\',  and  are  given  in  marriage;  but 
they  which  shall  be  accounted  worthy  to  obtain  that 
world,  and  the  resurrection  from  the  dead,  neither 
marry,  nor  are  given  in  marriage.  Neither  can  they 
die  any  more ;  for  they  are  equal  unto  the  angels ;  and 
are  the  children  of  God,  being  the  children  of  the  resur- 
rection." *  This  declaration  of  our  Lord  gives  us  four  very 
remarkable  data  upon  the  nature  of  angels  :  ist.  They  have 

*  St.  Luke  XX.  34-36. 


ANGELS.  10 1 

bodies,  since  the  resurrection  bodies  are  to  be  like  theirs. 
2d.  These  bodies  do  not  owe  their  existence  to  the  ordi- 
nary process  of  fiUation,  but  to  an  immediate  act  of  creation  ; 
for  they  are  compared  to  the  bodies  with  which  the  souls 
of  the  faithful  will  be  re-clothed  at  the  time  of  the  resurrec- 
tion. It  is  in  virtue  of  this  resemblance  that  both  alike  are 
to  bear  the  name  ''sons  of  God  "  in  the  life  to  come  ;  "  they 
are  the  children  of  God,  being  the  children  of  the  resurrec- 
tion." 3d.  The  conjugal  relation  will  no  longer  exist  for 
glorified  men,  any  more  than  it  exists  for  angels.  4th. 
This  enfranchisement  from  the  conjugal  relation  corre- 
sponds in  both  cases  to  the  exemption  from  death.  Do 
not,  then,  the  exact  contents  of  this  declaration  of  our 
Lord  agree,  as  closely  as  possible,  with  the  conclusions  at 
which  we  have  arrived  in  our  observations  on  the  living 
creatures  known  to  us  in  Nature  ? 

So  far,  then,  as  our  inductions  are  well  grounded,  and 
that  w^e  believe  our  Lord  was  speaking  of  a  subject  on  which 
He  could  pronounce  with  authorit}^,  we  may  now  consider 
the  question  of  the  reality  and  of  the  nature  of  angels  as  set- 
tled and  pass  on  to  the  second  step,  that  of  tr}-ing  to  dis- 
cover what  is  the  manner  of  development  of  these  beings. 


II. 


We  see,  then,  a  ladder  or  scale  before  us  ;  on  the  bottom 
step  of  it  we  have  species  without  individuality  ;  next  above 
that,  individuality  in  species ;  one  step  higher,  the  individ- 
ual detaching  himself  from  species ;  and  at  the  top  of  the 
scale,  the  individual  without  species,  that  is,  the  angel. 
Below  this  scale  of  living  creation,  and  as  it  were  the  ground 
upon  which  it  rests,  we  have  inanimate  matter  without  either 


102  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

collective  or  individual  life  ;  and  at  an  infinite  and  immeas- 
urable height  above,  the  Being  from  whose  hand  it  is  sus- 
pended, and  in  whom  both  individual  and  species  are 
but  one,  that  is  God.  The  angel,  then,  has  his  place  marked 
out  and  distinctly  definable  in  the  system  of  Nature.  Can 
w^e  find  out  something  of  his  history  ?  And  first,  with  ref- 
erence to  the  body. 

The  imagination  of  painters  has  clothed  angels  in  grace- 
ful bodily  forms.  Do  not  let  us  materialize  too  much  on 
the  one  hand  by  giving  literal  wings  and  feet  to  these 
beings,  but  neither  let  us  reject  the  idea  too  contemptuously, 
for,  as  we  have  just  seen,  they  have  really  a  bodily  organism, 
though  different  from  our  own. 

If,  then,  they  have  a  body,  they  must  have  a  habitation. 
Where  is  it  ?  Can  it  be  that  the  angels  form  the 
population  of  the  star-lit  sky  ?  In  this  way  one  might 
explain  the  double  sense  of  the  expression  so  often  used  in 
Scripture,  "  the  Lord  of  Hosts,"  which  would  appear  to 
mean  both  the  Lord  of  the  stars  and  the  Lord  of  angels. 
This  interpretation,  too,  gives  a  meaning  to  the  petition  in 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  "  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in 
heaven."  It  may  be,  however,  that  there  are  superior 
spheres  of  existence  distinguished  from  those  in  which  we 
live,  less  by  distance  in  space  than  by  a  difference  in  nature 
and  quality.  When  Jesus  said  of  those  whom  He  called 
"these  little  ones,"  that  their  angels  do  always  behold  the 
face  of  God,  that  is  to  say,  that  they  are  the  beings  nearest 
to  His  throne,  we  must  not,  therefore,  imagine  to  ourselves 
these  angels  as  living  half-way  to  the  nebulae  above  our 
heads.  They  are  at  once  higher  and  lower  ;  higher,  since 
they  are  said  to  be  so  near  the  throne ;  lower,  in  that  they 
are  in  some  ways  connected  with  those  weak  creatures  who 
are  the  most  in  need  of  protection  on  this  earth.  The 
heaven  which  they  inhabit  is  not  then  topographically  distant 


ANGELS.  103 

from  our  own  sphere.  It  may  be  that  it  is  diffused  through- 
out it  in  the  same  manner  as  the  impalpable  ether  pervades 
tangible  nature. 

As  to  the  moral  development  of  the  angels,  we  know,  in 
the  first  place,  that  they  are  free  beings.  This  follows 
from  the  high  place  which  they  occupy  in  the  scale  of  living 
creatures.  Unfettered  by  the  laws  of  species,  and  conse- 
quently not  under  the  dominion  of  blind  instinct,  the 
angel  must  be  even  more  free  than  man,  who  has  to  drag 
after  him  the  heavy  chain  of  collective  existence,  and  of  the 
involuntary  solidarity  of  his  species.  Now  one  character- 
istic of  all  free  existence  is  temptation.  No  sooner  was 
man  placed  in  the  scene  of  his  future  activity  than  he  was 
made  subject  to  this  law.  The  power  to  obey  or  to  resist 
is  the  first  gift  of  God  to  a  free  being,  as  soon  as  He  has 
made  Himself  known  as  the  giver  of  his  existence,  and  of 
all  the  benefits  which  accompany  it.  And  what  is  human 
life  but  a  series  of  trials,  out  of  each  of  which  we  emerge 
either  more  freely  dependent,  or  more  obstinately  rebel- 
lious ? 

To  surrender  ourselves  or  to  refuse  to  do  so,  to  confirm 
from  the  motive  of  love  our  state  of  dependence,  or  proudly 
to  deny  it,  it  is  in  this  that  that  progress  in  good  or  evil 
consists,  to  which  the  perilous  prerogative  of  free-will 
forces  us.  If  the  angels  are  free  as  we  are  free,  or  even 
more  completely  so,  they  cannot  escape  from  the  state  of 
probation. 

We  know  in  what  the  trial  of  man  consisted.  It  was 
adapted  to  the  initial  stage  of  his  existence,  to  his  then 
infantine  condition,  and  to  his  instinct  of  enjoyment. 
Shall  we  now  endeavor  to  lift  the  veil  which  conceals  the 
trial,  doubtless  of  a  very  different  kind,  to  which  the  angels 
were  subjected !  No,  we  have  but  to  call  to  mind  that  for 
man   himself    there    exist    more    subtle    and    dangerous 


104  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

temptations  than  those  of  the  flesh ;  temptations  of  a  kind 
purely  spiritual,  such  as  proceed  from  self-love,  self-will, 
the  love  of  praise,  the  abuse  of  intellectual  superiority,  the 
substitution  of  self  for  God  in  the  interior  worship  of  the 
soul.  Now  temptations  of  this  kind  are  more  conceivable 
in  any  being,  in  proportion  as  he  is  endowed  with  a  more 
spiritual  nature,  and  with  more  of  liberty  and  of  personal 
independence. 

We  know  that  the  trial  of  the  angels  has  taken  place. 
Holy  Scripture  makes  known  to  us  the  result  of  it,  though 
without  telling  us  in  what  it  consisted.  This  result  differs 
in  one  very  material  point  from  that  in  our  own  case. 
With  us  the  race  altogether  is  fallen,  just  because  we  are  a 
race,  and  in  that  method  of  existence,  the  fate  of  all  the 
individuals  is  bound  together,  at  least  according  to  the 
order  of  nature.  Humanity  is  like  a  single  tree  with  many 
branches ;  cut  the  trunk,  and  each  branch  is  as  completely 
severed  from  the  root  by  that  one  blow,  as  if  it  had  itself 
been  struck.  The  case  must  be  quite  different  where  there 
is  no  race,  no  filiation,  no  species.  The  angelic  host, 
instead  of  resembling  a  tree  bearing  a  multitude  of  branches, 
may  rather  be  compared  to  a  forest,  composed  of  a  number 
of  trees,  each  independent  of  the  others.  With  the  angels, 
then,  trial  may  have  had  different  or  opposite  results  in 
different  cases.  And,  according  to  Scripture,  we  find  that 
this  possibility  became  a  reality.  It  tells  us  of  certain 
angels,  that  they  "  kept  not  their  first  estate,  but  left  their 
own  habitation ;"  *  that  they  "  abode  not  in  the  truth  ;"  f 
while  to  others  is  given  the  title  of  "  holy  angels,"  t  and 
"elect  angels."  §  The  former,  then,  have  abjured  the  law 
of  their  existence,  the  will  of  their  Creator ;  that  is  to  say, 
they  have  made  their  own  will  the  principle  of  their  actions. 

*  Jude6.  J  I  Tim.  v.  21. 

t  John  viii.  44.  §  St.. Matt.  xxv.  31. 


ANGELS.  105 

They  have  thus  fallen  from  the  sphere  of  truth,  which 
is  only  in  God,  into  that  of  falsehood  ;  their  existence  has 
become  factitious,  they  oscillate  unceasingly  between 
illusion  and  imposture,  alternately  deceived  and  deceiving. 
For  there  exists  no  support  outside  of  their  own  being  to 
which  they  can  attach  themselves.  They  no  longer  possess 
God,  from  whom  they  have  separated  themselves,  and  with 
whom  the  faithful  angels  are  still  in  communion  ;  neither 
can  they  enjoy  the  world,  with  which  the  nature  of  their 
organs  does  not  allow  them  to  communicate  directly,"* 
—  that  world  which  forms  a  temporary  compensation  for 
sinful  men  who  have  lost  God.  They  live  and  act  in  the 
void  of  their  own  subjectivity  ;  a  void  which  they  ever  seek 
to  people  with  their  own  lying  creations.  The  only  conso- 
lation they  have  for  the  loss  of  God  consists  in  fighting 
against  all  that  is  good  and  true,  and  in  seducing  other  free 
beings,  whom  they  seek  to  drag  with  them  into  their  own 
feverish  activity,  purely  negative,  and  constantly  powerless. 
The  holy  angels,  on  the  contrary,  in  conforming  to  the 
will  of  God,  have  become  sharers  in  His  power  and  in  His 
truth  ;  they  are  happy  instruments  in  His  hand,  in  that 
particular  sphere  of  the  universe  over  which  each  of  them 
is  set.  Accordingly,  the  extraordinary  operations  of  Divine 
power  in  the  region  of  external  things  are  attributed  to 
them,  and  the  Son  of  man  speaks  of  His  miracles  as  of 
"  angels  which  ascend  and  descend."  f  The  reward  of 
their  willing  submission  is  to  be  really  what  they  were 
destined  to  be,  and  what  their  name  expresses, —  atigels,  or 
messengers  from  heaven,  the  agents  of  God.  In  God  they 
possess  at  once  both  the  guaranty  of  the  reality  of  their 
existence,  and  that  of  their  activity. 

*  All  the  more  do  they  seek  to  do  so  indirectly,  through  the  medium  of  the 
human  bzings  by  whom  they  contrive  to  gain  access  to  it.  Hence  what  are 
called  possessions. 

t  St.  John  i.  51. 


I06  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 


III. 


In  what  relation  do  these  beings  stand  to  one  another  ? 
Do  they  form  a  hierarchy  ?  Are  they  united  by  any  kind 
of  organization  ? 

Nowhere  upon  earth  do  we  find  complete  equality ;  and 
the  higher  we  ascend  in  the  scale  of  being,  the  more  marked 
do  we  find  the  superiority  of  some,  and  the  subordination 
of  others.  Three  forms  of  inequality  are  very  distinctly 
marked  among  men,  which  are  scarcely  to  be  found  among 
inferior  beings  ;  in  family  life,  the  natural  superiority  which 
belongs  to  parents  ;  in  the  State,  that  which  belongs  to 
rank  ;  in  society  in  general,  that  of  influence. 

The  first  of  these  three  fonns  of  superiority  can  have  no 
existence  among  the  angels.  As  regards  the  second,  St. 
Paul  speaks  of  thrones^  dominions^  principalities^  and  powers, 
all  which  terms  seem  to  point  to  different  degrees  of  a  hie- 
rarchy. And  as  regards  the  superiority  which  results  from 
personal  influence,  we  can  affirm  that,  even  without  the  tes- 
timony of  Scripture.  For  do  we  not  find  ever}-where  among 
men  some  who  are  subject  to  influence,  and  others  who 
exert  it  ?  Human  society  may  be  compared  to  a  pyramid, 
on  the  lowest  steps  of  which  stand  the  multitude,  which  have, 
strictly  speaking,  neither  thought  nor  will.  Next  above 
them  are  those  whose  function  it  is  to  reproduce  and  pub- 
lish, while  themselves  possessed  of  a  certain  amount  of 
power,  the  word  of  command  given  to  them  from  above. 
At  the  summit,  in  a  narrow  space  reserv^ed  for  a  small  num- 
ber of  elect  souls,  are  arranged  the  real  geniuses,  those  who 
open  out  new  horizons  to  the  minds  of  men,  and  new  paths 
for  their  activit}'.  These  are  the  true  potentates  of  human- 
ity ;  burning  and  shining  lights  like  Luther,  or  consuming 


ANGELS.  107 

fires  like  Voltaire.  If  this  is  the  case  among  men,  how 
much  more  must  it  be  so  among  the  angels,  who  are  supe- 
rior to  us  in  intelligence  and  liberty.  First,  at  the  base  of 
the  pyramid  are  the  angels,  properly  so  called,  or  messen- 
gers ;  these  are,  perhaps,  those  whom  Holy  Scripture  calls 
powers  ;  above  them  the  prmcipalities  •  then  the  dominions  ; 
which  unite  under  their  sceptre  different  groups  of  angels, 
of  ascending  degrees  of  importance  :  and,  at  the  summit, 
there  are  the  thrones,  or,  as  Scripture  also  calls  them,  arch- 
angels, or  chief  among  the  angels. 

Three  among  these  latter,  Scripture  designates  by  name, 
two  among  the  elect,  one  among  the  fallen  angels.  The 
two  first  are  called  Michael  and  Gabriel,  names  which 
express  in  human  language  the  offices  which  they  fulfil  in 
the  Creation  of  God.  The  meaning  of  the  word  Michael 
is :  Who  is  like  unto  God  /  In  him  we  behold  the  being 
who  is  placed  at  the  ver}^  summit  of  the  scale  of  living 
creatures.  One  thought  and  feeling  alone  absorbs  him,  and 
makes  the  sum  of  his  being  —  that  of  the  immeasurable 
distance  which  separates  him  from  the  Creator.  Himself 
at  the  very  summit  of  all,  he  feels  more  than  all  others  his 
own  nothingness.  Zeal  for  the  glor>'  of  God,  whom  he 
adores  whilst  veiling  himself,  is  the  spring  of  his  activity, 
the  very  principle  of  his  existence.  From  this  feeling  arises 
the  nature  of  the  work  he  has  to  do,  which  is  to  overthrow 
ever}'thing  that  dares  to  make  itself  equal  with  God,  or  to 
oppose  itself  to  Him,  Paganism  in  particular,  under  all  its 
various  forms.  In  the  Old  as  in  the  New  Testament, 
Michael  appears  as  the  protector  of  Israel,  and  the  cham- 
pion of  Monotheism,  (of  which  this  people  was  the  deposi- 
tary,) and  as  the  vanquisher  of  Satan  and  the  destroyer 
of  his  works.  This  archangel  thus  fitly  preludes  the  final 
work  of  the  Messiah  as  the  Judge  of  the  world. 

The  meaning  of  the  name  Gabriel,  the  second  archangel 


I08  STUDIES    OF     CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

of  light,  is  the  strofig  7?ian,  or  God's  hero.  In  him  we  see 
the  active  executor  of  God's  designs  for  the  salvation  of 
men.  Whilst  Michael  is  occupied  in  overthrowing  all  that 
opposes  God,  Gabriel  hastens  the  realization  of  his  plans. 
It  is  he  who  appears  to  Daniel  to  announce  to  him  the 
return  from  the  captivity,  and  to  fix  the  time  for  the  still 
distant  advent  of  the  Messiah  ;  it  is  he  who,  in  the  New 
Testament,  announces  to  Mary  the  birth  of  the  Saviour  of 
the  world.  *  Gabriel  is  the  heavenly  eva?igelist ;  he  preludes 
the  work  of  the  Messiah  as  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 

If,  then,  there  are  chiefs  among  the  elect  angels,  it  is  but 
natural  that  there  should  also  be  such  among  the  rebel  or 
fallen  angels. 

The  only  being  of  this  kind  whom  Scripture  specifies  by 
name,  is  he  who  is  called  Sata?i,  —  this  name,  which  means 
the  adversary,  is  drawn  from  his  relation  to  God,  —  and  the 
devil,  which  means  calumniator,  or  accuser,  and  is  drawn 
from  his  relation  to  men.  The  power  which  Holy  Scripture 
attributes  to  this  being  in  his  fallen  state,  is  a  testimony  to 
the  greatness  of  his  position,  and  the  excellence  of  his  fac- 
ulties before  his  rebellion.  Besides,  there  is  one  fact  which 
proves  this ;  he  dared  to  measure  himself,  as  it  were,  in 
single  combat  with  the  son  of  God.  When  he  says  to  Him, 
while  showing  Him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  "All 
this  is  delivered  to  me,"  there  is  no  authority  for  thinking 
that  he  was  not  speaking  the  truth.  Moreover,  Jesus  has 
elsewhere  confirmed  this  assertion  in  calling  him  more  than 
once,  the  prince  of  this  world.  Did  our  earth,  then,  once 
make  part  of  the  domain  originally  assigned  to  this  monarch  ? 
Was  it  his  fief  ?  Did  he  legitimately  exercise  authority  over 
it  until  the  day  when  he  tried  to  make  himself  lord  instead 
of  vassal  ?  However  that  may  be,  he  still  inhabits  a  sphere 
superior  to  ours,  butfiot  far  removed  from  it,  which  St.  Paul 

*  Dan.  viii.  i6;  ix.  21.     St.  Luke  i.  19,  26. 


ANGELS.  1 09 

Speaks  of  as  heavenly  places.  *  It  is  from  thence  that,  with 
a  multitude  of  other  beings  like  himself,  and  swayed  by  his 
influence,  he  exercises  up  to  this  present  time  an  unlimited 
power  over  that  portion  of  mankind  to  whom  Christ's  be- 
neficent influence  has  not  yet  extended. 

It  has  been  sometimes  maintained  that  the  mention  of 
these  superior  beings,  both  good  and  bad,  in  Holy  Scripture, 
has  been  borrowed  from  the  Babylonish  and  Persian 
religions,  wdth  which  the  Israelites  came  into  contact  during 
their  captivity  in  the  countries  of  the  Euphrates  and  the 
Tigris.  But  in  these  religions  the  number  of  the  archangels 
is  always  seven,  not  three.  This  number  seven,  which 
bears  a  relation  to  the  number  of  the  ministers  of  the 
Persian  kings,  we  find,  doubtless,  in  the  Jewish  documents 
subsequent  to  the  Babylonish  captivity.  But  Holy  Scripture 
shows  itself  independent  of  these  fables.  Moreover,  the 
two  principal  angels  of  light  whom  it  brings  before  us, 
already  appear  as  the  companions  of  Jehovah  at  the  time 
of  His  visit  to  Abraham,  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  written  a 
long  time  before  the  Babylonish  captivity.  And  as  regards 
the  archangel  whom  it  reveals  to  us  as  the  Prince  of  the 
kingdom  of  darkness,  it  does  not  make  him  a  god,  as  do 
all  the  religions  of  the  East,  but  a  poor  created  being, 
trembling  in  the  presence  of  God,t  and  so  much  the  more 
miserable  as  he  had,  in  his  former  state,  been  richly 
dowered. 

Here  then,  as  elsewhere,  the  Bible  maintains  that  inde- 
pendent character  which  guarantees  to  us  the  originality 
of  its  sources. 

*  Eph.  vi.  12. 

t  Zech.  iii.  2.     S.  James  ii.  19. 


no  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 


IV. 


We  now  arrive  at  the  question  which  most  concerns  us ; 
that  of  the  relation  which  angels  bear  to  human  beings. 
Perhaps  an  analogy  drawn  from  history  may  throw  some 
light  upon  this  delicate  question.  Until  the  advent  of 
Jesus  Christ  the  Israelites  seemed  separated  by  an  iron 
wall  from  all  other  nations.  The  Greeks  and  Romans 
occupied  the  foreground  of  the  scene,  but  Israel,  in  its 
retired  and  isolated  position,  appeared  to  bear  no  relation 
to  those  great  actors  in  history.  Nevertheless,  a  deeper 
study  makes  it  apparent  that  on  many  points  the  progress 
of  these  nations  was  parallel  with  that  of  the  people  of 
God.  History  had  progressed  simultaneously  with  the 
ever-increasing  influence  of  this  unique  people,  until  at  last 
the  moment  arrived  when,  the  barrier  having  fallen,  the 
two  streams,  Jewish  and  Pagan,  were  reunited.  It  was  in 
the  Church  that  this  confluence,  which  constitutes  the 
close  of  ancient  history,  was  effected.  It  had  always  been 
intended  and  predicted.  From  the  ver}'  beginning  God's 
purpose  was  the  realization  of  the  unity  of  the  human  race 
by  means  of  the  Gospel. 

There  is  a  unity  even  vaster  than  that  of  the  human  race, 
and  not  less  positively  decreed  by  God ;  that  of  all  the 
beings  who  make  up  the  moral  universe,  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  in  its  fullest  extent.  Just  as  in  the  old  world,  God 
was  preparing  that  first  fusion  which  dates  from  the  advent 
of  Jesus  Christ ;  so  is  He  now,  in  this  present  economy, 
ever  working  to  prepare  for  that  far  greater  and  richer 
unity,  which  will  be  consummated  at  the  glorious  re-appear- 
ing of  the  same  Jesus  Christ. 

It  needs  but  to  open  one's  eyes,  to  perceive  the  relations 


ANGELS.  Ill 

which  unite  the  development  of  our  race  with  that  of  those 
beings  of  whom  we  are  now  treating,  relations  which  fit 
our  human  history  into  a  grander  whole,  that  of  the  great 
universal  history.  The  temptation  and  the  fall  of  the  first 
man,  and  up  to  a  certain  point,  the  creation  even  of 
humanity,  are  the  first  events  which  attest  the  relation 
existing  between  the  two  spheres.  If  Satan  was  really,  in 
his  original  state,  the  monarch  to  whom  was  entrusted 
the  government  of  this  Earth,  and  if  the  condition  of  man 
was  that  which  is  implied  in  the  Divine  command  :  Have 
dominion  over  the  earth  and  over  all  that  moveth  upon 
it, —  there  is  but  one  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  these 
facts,  that  is,  that  from  that  time  God  substituted  man  for 
Satan  as  the  lord  of  the  world  ;  and  that  the  place  He 
intended  for  man  in  creating  him  was  that  of  a  successor 
and  a  rival  to  Satan. 

Satan  was  a  revolted  vassal,  and  God  gave  his  domain 
to  another.  Man  received  the  mission  to  conquer  it  by 
superiority,  not  of  strength,  but  of  obedience.  From  this 
point  of  view  we  understand  the  eagerness  with  which  Satan 
has  from  the  first  labored  to  draw  men  away  from  submis- 
sion, and  into  complicity  with  his  rebellion.  What  could 
be  more  attractive  to  a  rebel  than  the  hope  of  causing  the 
army  sent  to  overcome  him  to  turn,  and  to  make  himself 
its  leader  against  that  ver}'  power  who  had  raised  it  against 
him  ? 

But  what  avail  the  stratagems,  and  even  the  victories  of 
Satan  against  the  designs  of  supreme  Wisdom  ?  The 
defection  'of  humanit}',  the  chef-d  ^ceuvre  of  diabolic  clever- 
ness, has  only  served  to  exhibit  in  a  more  striking  manner 
the  grandeur  of  the  Divine  plan. 

Through  the  sin  of  man,  it  is  true,  Satan  has  become 
provisionally  the  master  of  this  earth ;  he  has  even  gained 
one  more  subject.     He  who  was  to  have  taken  away  his 


112  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

empire  is  become  his  ally  and  his  slave ;  and  what  degra- 
dation has  he  not  ever  since  inflicted  upon  his  unhappy 
captive  !  With  what  heavy  chains  has  he  not  loaded  him  ! 
Idolatry  with  its  shameful  practices,  war  with  its  bloody 
horrors,  death  with  its  inexpressible  anguish,  sin,  above  all, 
with  its  baseness  and  remorse ;  behold  in  all  these  the 
monuments  of  Satan's  power  over  humanity,  the  trophies 
of  his  victory  over  our  Earth. 

And  what  does  God  do  ?  Does  He  at  once  crush  in  His 
fury  His  adversary  and  ours  ?  That  would  not  be  to  con- 
quer him.  In  a  combat  such  as  this,  it  is  necessar}^  to 
confound  in  order  to  conquer ;  and  to  confound  is  to  show 
oneself  not  the  stronger  but  the  better. 

Do  you  see  that  little  Child  lying  in  a  manger  ?  Here 
is  the  new  Champion  whom  God  has  chosen,  and  whom 
He  will  from  henceforth  oppose  to  the  Prince  of  this  world. 
Satan,  himself  a  creature,  had  aspired  to  the  independence 
and  to  the  glory  of  a  god.  God  detaches  from  himself  a 
mysterious  Being,  another  self,  who  willingly  despoils 
himself  of  His  condition  as  God,  and  reduces  himself  to 
the  dependence  and  nothingness  of  a  created  Being.  The 
archangel  made  himself  God  ;  the  Son  of  God  makes  him- 
self man ;  the  Word  becomes  flesh.  Under  the  humblest 
form  of  human  life.  He  acts  out  that  absolute  submission 
to  God,  which  had  been  refused  both  by  the  archangel  and 
by  the  first  man.  Satan  feels  now  a  principle  in  humanity 
which  resists  him ;  he  hastens  to  the  spot,  for  he  perceives 
that  his  power  is  being  threatened. 

As  once  before  he  had  triumphed  in  the  garden  of  plenty, 
so  now  he  hopes  to  do  in  the  desert  of  privation.  But  this 
time  he  has  met  with  his  vanquisher.  Jesus  remains  firm 
in  spite  of  all  his  suggestions  and  his  offers  ;  He  persists 
in  referring  all  to  God  ;  the  preservation  of  His  bodily 
existence,  the  means  of  establishing  His  kingdom  on  earth, 


ANGELS.  113 

the  time  when  He  should  perform  His  miracles,  all  are 
referred  to  God.  The  whole  of  His  subsequent  ministry 
is  only  a  confirmation  of  this  unreserved  submission,  to 
which  He  devoted  himself  in  the  wilderness.  And  after 
He  has  consummated  His  expiatory  and  redeeming  work. 
He  is  at  last  crowned  and  enthroned  as  the  new  Sovereign 
of  the  earth.  It  is  a  change  of  dynasty  ;  *  the  world  passes 
into  the  hands  of  another  master.  Satan  is  deposed,  and 
his  rights  of  sovereignty  are  transferred  to  Jesus  Christ, 
who  in  His  turn  transfers  them  to  mankind.  His  family,  in 
whose  name,  and  as  the  representative  of  whom,  He  has 
fought,  obeyed,  conquered. 

Such  a  transference  is  possible,  in  virtue  of  the  solidarity 
of  the  species  which  is  the  characteristic  of  humanity,  and 
which  distinguishes  it  from  angels.  Inasmuch  as  it  forms 
one  species,  humanity  can  be  saved  altogether  by  One. 
Such  a  method  of  salvation  would  not  be  applicable  to  the 
fallen  angels,  who  have  only  an  individual  and  no  collective 
existence.  Accordingly  it  is  said  that  "  Christ  took  not 
on  Him  the  nature  of  angels,  but  the  seed  of  Abraham."  f 

From  that  moment  Satan  and  his  followers  have  main- 
tained a  desperate  fight  against  this  new  power,  which  was 
to  be  substituted  for  theirs.  From  the  heavenly  places,  those 
superior  regions  where  they  still  live,  and  from  whence 
they  exert  their  influence,  they  endeavor  to  hinder  the 
Gospel  and  its  progress  throughout  the  world.  But  has  not 
Christ  so  arranged  as  to  make  His  cause  one  and  the  same 
with  that  of  God  t  Therein  is  the  sure  guarantee  of  his 
final  victor}%  The  throne  of  the  adversary  is  abased  in 
proportion  as  His  is  exalted.  It  is  easy  to  see  what  must  be 
the  effect  of  this  double  movement. 

What  part  do  the  holy  angels  take  in  this  work  which  God 
is  effecting  in  the  heart  of  humanity  ?     A  part  both  con- 

*  S.  John  xii.  31.  f  Heb.  ii.  16. 


114  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

templative  and  active.  They  had  once  hailed  with  joyful 
acclamations  the  creation  of  man :  as  Job  says,  "  the  morn- 
ing stars  sang  together,  and  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for 
joy  "when  man  first  made  his  appearance  on  the  earth. 
Later  on  they  were  the  assistants  and  servants  of  those 
prophets  whose  ministry  and  whose  visions  prepared  for  the 
coming  of  the  Saviour.  As  soon  as  Jesus  himself  appeared, 
they  surrounded  him  like  a  band  of  devoted  messengers, 
ascending  and  descending  at  His  orders,  instruments  of  the 
Divine  interA^ention  in  the  physical  world,  as  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  of  the  work  of  salvation  in  the  inner  sphere.  At  the 
moment  of  the  consummation  of  the  Eternal  Sacrifice,  they 
looked  down  into  this  depth  of  mystery,  and  sought  in 
vain  to  fathom  it.  Finally,  they  were  the  first  to  make 
known  the  Resurrection,  as  they  had  been  the  first  to 
announce  the  Nativity. 

Ever  since  the  foundation  of  the  Church,  their  attention 
has  been  fixed  upon  this  masterpiece  of  Divine  love.  They 
contemplate  it  with  adoration,  as  a  work  greater  than  nature, 
a  creation  more  glorious  and  enduring  than  that  of  the  six 
days.  As  St.  Paul  says  :  "  To  the  intent  that  now  unto  the 
principalities  and  powers,  in  heavenly  places,  might  be 
known  by  the  Church  the  manifold  wisdotti  of  God."* 
Upon  this  spiritual  stage  the  angels  contemplate  with  an 
ever-renewed  rapture  the  manifold  means  by  which  the 
Father  brings  to  the  Son  the  hearts  of  sinners,  and  saves 
that  which  had  been  lost.  And  there  is  joy  amongst  them 
each  time  that  an  ineffable  smile,  passing  over  the  face  of 
the  Father,  makes  known  to  them  that  one  of  his  children 
who  had  been  dead  is  now  restored  to  life. 

While  thus  contemplating,  they  learn,  they  grow,  they 
rejoice,  sometimes  also  they  weep,  and  always  they  adore. 
But  they  do  more  than  this.     Once  they  were  agents  in  the 

*  Eph.  iii.  lo. 


ANGELS.  115 

history  of  the  Master  :  now  they  are  so  in  that  of  His 
Church.  "  Are  they  not  all  ministering  spirits,  sent  forth 
to  minister  for  them  who  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation  ? "  * 
The  greatest  among  them  do  not  disdain  to  keep  specially 
close  to  the  weak,  and  to  the  lowest  amongst  the  faithful, t 
Jesus  himself  declares  this  to  us,  without,  however,  giving 
us  any  right  to  infer  from  these  words  that  each  human 
being  has  an  angel  personally  attached  to  himself. 

But  of  what  use,  you  will  ask,  is  this  intervention  of  angels  ? 
Cannot  God  help  us  by  His  providence  and  by  His  omnip- 
otence, without  having  recourse  to  these  created  ministers  ? 
Assuredly  He  could  do  so  :  but  to  be  consistent,  you  must 
also  ask,  Why  does  the  new-born  infant,  on  its  entrance  into 
life,  find  loving  hands  to  care  for  and  to  tend  it  ?  Could  not 
God  clothe  and  nourish  it  himself  by  His  power  ?  Or,  again 
do  you  ask,  Why,  in  the  danger  through  which  you  have  just 
passed  God  saved  your  life  by  means  of  one  of  your  fellow- 
men,  instead  of  doing  so  by  His  own  Hand  .''  The  reason  is, 
that  it  is  not  God's  will  that  that  bond,  so  full  of  sweetness, 
which  forever  unites  the  benefited  to  his  benefactor,  should 
exist  only  between  Him  and  ourselves.  The  love  of  God  is 
great  enough  to  make  Him  wish  not  to  love,  or  to  be  loved 
alone.  He  values  love,  which  is  the  very  essence  of  His 
being,  too  highly  not  to  labor  by  every  means  to  multiply  it 
between  all  the  beings  He  has  created,  as  well  as  between 
himself  and  them.  This  is  the  aim  and  end  of  all  His  dis- 
pensations, negative  and  positive.  His  love  for  all,  that  of 
all  for  Him  and  of  all  for  one  another,  makes  the  glory  of  His 
kingdom.  And  this  is  why  it  is  His  will  that  we  should  all 
help  one  another,  and  that  this  relation  of  mutual  assistance 
should  exist  even  betAveen  angels  and  men.  Thus  He  pre- 
pares for  the  time  when  these  two  races,  more  widely  differ- 

*  Heb.  i.  14.  t  S.  Matt.  x"iii.  10. 


Il6  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

ing  than  Jews  and  Gentiles,  shall  be  closely  united  in  His 
kingdom,  and  shall  form  but  one  body. 

Finally,  in  the  end  of  time,  this  relation  between  men  and 
angels,  first  contracted  at  the  Creation,  and  made  more  inti- 
mate during  their  development,  will  be  sealed  by  a  supreme 
event.  On  the  one  hand,  S.  Paul  says  that  men  "  will  judge 
angels,"  *  i.  e.,  holy  men  will  judge  the  rebel  angels ;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  angels  will  sift  the  tares  from  the  wheat 
among  mankind,  garnering  up  the  former,  and  burning  the 
latter  :  such  is  the  declaration  of  Jesus,  t 

And  after  each  of  these  two  classes  of  beings  shall  have 
thus  rendered  homage  to  the  Divine  holiness  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  other,  the  end  of  God's  dispensations  to  both 
will  be  realized.  He  who  has  determined  to  "gather 
together  in  one  all  things  in  Christ,  both  which  are  in 
heaven  and  which  are  in  earth,  "  t  will  join  both  men  and 
angels  in  one  under  this  single  Head. 

As,  then,  the  two  great  streams  in  the  old  world,  Jews 
and  Gentiles,  after  successive  approaches,  were  at  last 
united  in  the  Church,  so  the  two  great  classes  of  beings  of 
whom  the  moral  universe  is  composed,  men  and  angels, 
after  being  brought  into  a  series  of  beneficent  relations 
with  each  other,  will  submit  in  concert  to  the  sceptre  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Creator  and  Lord  of  angels,  the  Creator, 
Saviour,  and  Lord  of  men,  the  Judge  of  all. 

It  seems,  then,  impossible  for  us  to  set  aside  the  belief 
in  the  existence  and  agency  of  angels  as  a  point  of  no 
importance.  We  are  led  up  to  this  belief  by  the  inductions 
of  Nature,  by  the  analogies  of  Histor}^,  and  by  the  teachings 
of  Scripture.  And  who  does  not  feel  how  much,  from  this 
point  of  view,  the  domain  of  the  Divine  work  is  extended 
before  us,  and  the  sphere  of  light  enlarged  ?     In  the  same 

*  I  Cor.  vi.  3.  t  S.  Matt.  xiii.  39.  J  Eph.  i.  10  ;  Col.  i.  20. 


ANGELS.  117 

way  that  the  sight  of  the  star-Ht  heavens  enlarges  infinitely 
our  conception  of  the  physical  universe,  so  does  the  belief 
in  the  existence  of  angels  give  the  character  of  infinity 
to  the  idea  we  form  to  ourselves  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
And  how  can  we  avoid  perceiving  at  the  same  time  how 
much  this  belief  is  fitted  to  give  vividness  to  our  terror,  and 
to  deepen  our  horror  of  evil  ?  Does  it  not  make  us  see  in 
every  temptation  a  trap  laid  for  us  by  a  mortal  enemy,  and 
in  every  sin  we  commit  a  complicity  not  only  criminal  but 
senseless,  with  a  hateful  and  malevolent  being  ?  Finally, 
do  we  not  feel  how  much  this  belief  tends  to  exalt  the  per- 
son of  our  Redeemer,  and  to  enhance  His  work  ?  He  is 
not  only  the  Head  of  mankind,  whom  He  has  saved  by 
His  sufferings,  but  also  of  the  angels,  to  whom  He  gave 
existence,  and  whom,  from  the  midst  of  His  glory,  He  leads 
to  perfection. 

That  was  a  magnificent  duet  which  resounded  in  the 
Church  when,  for  the  first  time,  the  believers  from  amongst 
the  Jews,  and  the  converts  from  amon^  the  Gentiles,  united 
their  voices  to  sing  the  new  song,  the  hymn  of  salvation. 
They  both  celebrated  the  marvellous  works  of  God,  but 
each  in  his  own  manner ;  the  former  praising  Him  above 
all  things  for  Yiis  faithfulness  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  prom- 
ises made  to  their  fathers;  the  latter  publishing  His  mercy 
towards  the  people  to  whom  He  had  promised  nothing, 
but  who,  whatever  might  be  their  unworthiness,  had  not- 
withstanding received  all.*  It  will  be  a  h\iiin  set  for  two 
voices,  even  more  rich  and  sublime,  with  which  the  elect 
angels  and  glorified  men  will  celebrate,  together,  the  work 
of  God,  but  in  differing  tones ;  the  former  with  that  rich 
and  sonorous  voice,  of  which  nothing  has  ever  marred  the 
purity,  announcing  the  faithfulness  of  the  Most  High  which 
so  magnificently  rewards  their  own  faithfulness ;  the  latter, 

*  Rom.  XV.  8,  9. 


Il8  STUDIES    OF    CREATION    AND    LIFE. 

in  a  graver  tone  and  more  restrained  accent,  as  becomes 
beings  whose  song  is  born  amidst  tears,  glorifying  tlie  grace 
of  Him  who  can  blot  out  even  unfaithfulness  :  those,  setting 
before  us  men,  by  their  example,  that  ladder  of  light  upon 
which  it  is  possible  to  ascend  to  God  without  once  depart- 
ing from  the  truth,  to  attain  to  perfection,  not  without  trial 
but  without  falling,  to  realize  progress  in  pure  good  —  thus 
glorifying  the  holiness  and  the  truth  of  that  God  who  does 
not  permit  that  sin  should  ever  appear  to  be  necessar}^,  or 
even  in  itself  useful ;  and,  on  the  other  side,  we  men  respond- 
ing to  them,  and  pointing  in  deep  humility  to  the  dark 
abysses  of  sin  into  which  we  had  thrown  ourselves,  but  from 
which  the  Hand  of  God  has  drawn  us  by  unparalleled  mar- 
vels —  thus  glorifying  in  their  eyes  that  grace  which  "  where 
sin  abounded  did  much  more  abound,  "  *  and  which,  in 
thus  transforming  even  evil  into  good,  has  accomplished 
the  greatest  of  all  miracles.  From  the  midst  of  the  two 
races,  henceforth  to  form  but  one,  there  will  then  rise,  in 
var)dng  tones,  that  united  hymn  (last  word  of  the  history  of 
free  beings),  of  which  the  song  of  the  angels  and  of  the 
shepherds,  on  Christmas  Eve,  was  the  prelude  :  "  Praise  be 
to  God  and  to  the  Lamb  who  sitteth  upon  the  throne  !  Alle- 
luia ! " 

*  Rom.  V.  20. 


Boston  Stereotype  Foundry, 
No.  4  Pearl  Street. 


DR.   CHRISTLIEB'S 

Foreign  Missions  of  Protestantism. 

280  pp.    16mo.    Price,  80  cents. 

The  Author's  Copyrighted  American  Translation  from  the  latest, 
fourth,  enlarged  German  edition. 

The  Statistics  brought  down  to  June,  1880,  with  an  Index  of 
more  than  Sixteen  Hundred  Keferences. 

The  proof-sheets  revised  by  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board  of  Missions. 


From  a  large  number  of  favorable  notices  of  the  press  we  give  a  few 
extracts  :  — 

"  The  most  accurate,  complete,  and  satisfactory  compendium  of  foreign 
missionary  operations  as  now  prosecuted  by  Protestants."  — J/i^s/ojia?-?/ 
Herald. 

"This  is  one  of  the  books  which  should  have  an  innnense  circulation.  It 
is,  as  its  title  indicates,  a  universal  survey  of  Protestant  Missions.  In  view 
of  the  scope  of  the  work,  two  things  are  remarkable  —  the  accuracy  of  in- 
formation, and  the  brevity  with  which  it  is  given.  We  have  read  the  book 
with  uncommon  interest.  Wish  the  book  might  be  read,  not  only  by  every 
pastor,  but  also  by  all  the  more  intelligent  members  in  the  churches.  —  Ad- 
vance, Chicago. 

"  The  work  is  a  very  valuable  compendium  of  its  subject  :  indeed,  we 
kuoAv  no  other  which  embraces  the  whole  of  the  missionary  work  of  Protest- 
antism in  one  view.  AVe  heartily  commend  this  little  book  to  those  of  our 
readers  who  wish  to  obtain  a  view  of  the  entire  body  of  foreign  missionary 
work."  —  The  Methodist,  New  York. 

"Every  Christian  ought  to  be  familiar  with  the  contents  of  this  little 
bonk.  XotAvithstanding  its  brevity,  it  is  a  grand  epitome  of  what  God  hath 
wrought  in  the  fulfilment  of  his  exceeding  great  and  precious  promises.  .  .  . 
It  shows  the  grandeur  of  the  enterprise,  and  the  blessedness  of  its  results,  in 
a  Avay  that  must  impress  every  candid  mind,  as  Avell  as  every  sympathetic 
heart.  —  Obseri-er,  New  York. 

"  The  work  is  marked  by  breadth,  thoroughness,  and  accuracy,  and  the  in- 
formation which  it  contains  is  nowhere  else  accessible  in  so  convenient  a 
form."  —  Boston  Journal. 

"  We  rejoice  to  be  able  heartily  to  commend  this  book.  ...  It  is  accurate, 
tasteful,  and  hea.utiful.'"  —  Coiiyregatiojialisf,  Boston. 

For  Sale  by  all  Booksellers,  or  sent,  post-paid,  on 
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Congregational  Publishing  Society,  Boston. 

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A     BOOK    FOR    THE    TIMES. 


AN  INQUIRY  CONCERNIXG 

THE 

Relation  of  Death  to  Probation. 

Written  for, the  Congregational  Publishing  Society  by 
PROF.  G.  FREDERICK  WRIGHT, 

ACTHOB  OF   "  THE   LOGIC   OF   CHKISTIAX   EVIDENCES,"    AND   "  STUDIES  IN 
SCIENCE   AND   RELIGION." 

Post-paid,  75  cents. 

"  If  you  like  a  book  which  takes  hold  of  its  subject  with  a  grip  and  handles 
it  fairly  and  handsomely,  and  at  the  same  time  positively  and  thoroughly, 
you  have  it  here.  Few  men  are  entitled  to  speak  with  so  much  weight  on  the 
point  as  Professor  Wright.  He  is  a  confessed  expert,  a  scientist  in  high  stand- 
ing. We  commend  the  volume  heartily  to  our  readers,  whatever  their  ijresent 
opinions  upon  its  subject."  —  Congreyafionalist. 

"  We  highly  commend  it  for  its  faithful  and  clear  presentation  of  the 
Scriptural  teaching  on  this  subject.  Of  course,  this  would  be  that  there  is  no 
warrant  in  Scripture  for  believing  that  there  is  probation  after  death,  but 
that  the  awards  of  the  Judgment  Day  are  endless."  —  ^Va^ioHa/  Baptist,  I'hlla. 

"This  is  a  very  clear.  Scriptural,  satisfactory  discussion  of  a  difficult  sub- 
ject. It  is  an  especial  tract  for  the  hoar,  and  should  be  widely  circulated." 
—  Zio7i's  Herald. 

"  This  book  is  serviceable  as  a  fair,  simple,  and  earnest  statement  of  the 
usual  doctrine  of  Future  Punishment."— Z/.'<  /•(<;•*/  World. 

"  The  position  of  the  author  is  highly  conservative,  especially  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  proof-texts,  and  he  contends  for  the  received  opiniSn  that  pro- 
bation ends  with  death  with  a  keen,  practical  appreciation  of  the  homiletic 
importance  of  that  doctrine."— Indejjendent,  New  York. 

"  It  discusses  the  questions  that  have  been  suggested  in  regard  to  a  possible 
probation  between  death  and  the  judgment,  especially  for  those  who  have 
not  had  the  motives  of  the  gospel  presented  to  them  in  this  life.  In  it  the 
reader  will  find  the  Scriptural  aspect  of  the  subject  of  eternal  punishment 
presented  so  briefly,  so  clearly,  so  conclusively,  that  to  avoid  the  issue  he 
must  make  some  compromise  with  his  faith  v.\  the  Word  of  God."— Observer^ 
Xeio  York. 

For  Sale  by  all  Booksellers,  or  sent,  post-paid,  on 
receipt  of  price,  by 

Congregational  Publishing  Society,  Boston. 

GEO.    P.   SMITH,    Agent. 


ACTON: 

OE, 

School  and  College  Days. 

Price,  $1.00. 

A  story  of  life  at  Oberlin  in  the  days  of  President  Finney.  The  deep  re- 
ligious spirit  which  pervaded  that  institution  and  brought  all  the  pupils 
under  its  influence,  the  earnest  purposes  and  joyous  experience  of  young 
Christian  men  and  women  looking  forward  to  lives  of  self-sacrifice  for  Christ's 
sake,  are  clearly,  spiritedly  described.  No  one  could  have  written  this  book 
who  had  not  himself  been  through  the  scenes  described.  Xo  young  man  or 
woman  will  read  it  without  feeling  its  influence  for  good. 


Eev.  JA3IES  H.  Fairchild,  D.D.,  President  of  Oberlin  College,  savs  of  it : 
"  I  have  been  impressed  by  it  as  a  story  of  decided  merit,  written  from  the 
heart  and  life  of  the  author  in  a  vigorous  and  pleasing  style  -  wholesome  and 
helpful  in  its  suggestions  and  lessons.  In  my  judgment,  it  cannot  fail  to 
prove  interesting  to  a  Avide  circle  of  readers." 

Kev.  S.  E.  Herrick,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  :\rount  Vernon  Church,  Boston,  says 
of  It :  "A  book  of  great  merit.  I  have  read  it,  every  Avord,  AVith  profit  and 
delight." 

"  This  book  is  full  of  that  deep,  spiritual  atmosphere  which  is  the  glory  of 
many  of  our  Western  colleges.    INIany  a  man  or  woman  there  trained  will 
say,  as  he  reads  this  volume,  I  too  have  been  surrounded  bv  such  influences 
and  thereby  brought  to  the  saving  knowledge  of  God.    With  hearty  com- 
mendation we  bid  ACTOX  Godspeed."  —  Golden  Rule. 

"As  a  story  it  has  merit,  being  written  in  a  vigorous  and  pleasing  style. 
The  suggestions  it  contains  for  parents  are  valuable,  and  the  lessons  it  teaches 
young  people  cannot  fail  to  be  very  useful.  It  is  beautifully  printed,  and 
tastefully  bound."  —Xeiv  England  Journal  of  Education. 

"  Set  this  down  for  your  Sunday-school  Library  without  fail.  It  is  good  as 
a  story :  it  is  admirable  in  the  discerning  skill  and  spiritual  wisdom  with 
which  Christian  truths  are  brought  into  relations  with  human  experiences." 
— Adcance. 

For  Sale  by  all  Boolcsellem,  or  sent,  post-paid,  on 
receipt  of  price,  by 

Congregational  Publishing  Society,  Boston. 

GEO.  P.  SMITH,  Agent. 


Helps  to  a  Life  of  Prayer. 

BY  KEV.  J.  M.  MANNING,  D.D. 
Price,  $1.00. 

The  Author's  Preface  to  this  book  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  My  own  study  of  the  subject  of  prayer,  some  of  the  results  of 
which  are  here  gathered  up,  has  brought  to  me  a  fuller  experience 
of  the  nearness  and  love  of  God  than  I  once  had ;  and  my  earnest 
wish,  in  offering  this  volume  to  the  public,  is  that  others  may  find 
the  same  blessed  experience,  or  have  it  deepened  with  them,  if  it 
be  already  theirs." 


''Dr.  Manning's  charming  little  volume,  which  seems  to  have 
been  written  out  of  his  own  heart,  contains  only  six  chapters, 
respectively  devoted  to  the  Nature,  Forms,  Objects,  Fruits,  Power, 
and  Hour  of  Prayer. 

"It  is  one  of  those  sweet,  suggestive,  and  experimental  mono- 
graphs which  finely  tends  to  deepen  in  other  souls  the  tender  sense 
of  '  the  nearness  and  love  of  God.'  It  touches,  with  singular  deli- 
cacy and  wisdom,  many  of  those  sensitive  points  of  Christian  ex- 
perience which  shrink  from  public  exposure,  to  which  it  is  not 
always  easy  to  give  clear  utterance.  Cultured  spiritual  minds  will 
appreciate  the  elevated  tone  of  sentiment  and  the  beautiful  style 
of  these  Helps  to  a  Life  of  Prayer." 


*'I  read  this  admirable  little  book  on  prayer  through  at  a  sitting, 
so  deeply  was  I  interested  in  its  contents. 

"The  book  is  timely  in  its  theme,  calm  and  judicial-like  in  its 
impartiality,  and  cogent  in  its  reasoning.  It  will,  I  am  sure,  be 
fruitful  in  good  results."  —  ReVo  Wm.  M.  Taylok,  D.D. 

For  Sale  by  all  Booksellers,  or  seiit,  post-paid,  on 
receipt  of  price,  by 

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GEO.  P.  SMITH,  Agent. 


Hand-Book  of  Congregationalism. 

BY  REV.   HENRY  M.    DEXTER,   D.D. 

THE  BEST   BOOK   OX   CONGREGATIONALISM 
FOR   PRACTICAL   USE. 

Price,   $1.00. 

This  cheap  pocket  manual  [16o,  pp.  212]  it  is  believed  will  meet 
a  want  long  felt.  It  has  been  prepared  with  great  care  to  reduce  to 
the  densest  form  those  main  facts  as  to  the  Scriptural  system  of 
Churcli  government  which  all  intelligent  Congregationalists  need 
to  know. 

Special  pains  have  been  taken :  ( 1 )  to  bring  all  into  accord  with 
the  latest  discoveries  in  the  earliest  annals  of  modern  Congrega- 
tional history,  thus  correcting  many  ancient  errors  whicli  impair 
the  value  of  previous  treatises;  (2)  to  bring  out  the  exact  sense  of 
every  passage  in  the  New  Testament  which  refers  to  politij  ;  (3)  so 
to  emphasize  the  principles  of  Congregationalism  as  to  place  within 
the  grasp  of  every  intelligent  mind  the  means  of  correctly  solving 
all  of  its  practical  problems;  (4)  to  supply  a  complete  set  of  such 
simple  forms  as  its  occasions  require;  (5)  to  suggest  a  few  of  its 
advantages;  (6)  to  outline  those  Rules  of  Order  which  govern  all 
Congregational  assemblies;  ajid  (7)  to  make  all  usable  by  unusually 
copious  indexes. 

For  Sale  by  all  Booksellers,  or  sent,  post-paid,  on 
receipt  of  price,  by 

Congregational  Publishing  Society,  Boston. 

GEO.   P.   SMITH,   Agent. 


SABBATH   ESSAYS. 


WORK   OF   PERMANENT  VALUE   ON   A  THEME 
OF   VITAL    IMPORTANCE. 

Price,  $1.50. 

As  a  treatise  on  the  Sabbath,  designed  to  meet  all  ordinary 
inquiries  on  the  subject,  it  will  be  Invaluable  to  Pastors,  Sabbath- 
School  Teachers,  Public  and  Private  Libraries.  It  is  the  most 
valuable  contribution  recently  made  to  the  literature  on  the  Sabbath 
question. 

The  book  contains  thirty-eight  essays  and  addresses,  discussing 
the  Sabbath  in  thirty-eight  different  aspects  and  relations.  The 
essays  are  divided  into  sections,  as  follows:  "The  Sabbath  in 
Nature,"  "The  Sabbath  in  the  Word  of  God,"  "The  Sabbath  in 
History,"  "The  Sabbath  in  the  State  and  in  Society."  The 
addresses  follow,  twelve  in  number,  most  of  them  on  practical 
questions  of  Sabbath  observance.  A  Historical  Sketch  on  Sabbath 
Conventions  closes  the  volume.  The  views  of  some  of  the  foremost 
men  of  all  the  evangelical  denominations  are  here  brought  together, 
presenting  this  great  subject  on  all  sides,  fiu-nishing  a  discussion 
that  seems  complete,  and  making  the  volume  an  invaluable  text- 
book on  the  Sabbath  question. 

For  Sale  by  all  Booksellers,  or  sent,  post-paid,  on 
receipt  of  price,  by 

Congregational  Publishing  Society,  Boston. 

GEO.   P.   SMITH,   Agent. 


SERMONS 


ON 


The  International  S.  S.  Lessons. 

BY     THE     MONDAY    CLUB. 


456  pp.    12mo.    Price,  $1.50. 


The  Sermons  by  the  ^Monday  Club  have  gained  a  permanent  hold  upon  the 
interest  of  all  classes  of  Sunday-school  workers,  many  of  Avhom  have  ex- 
pressed in  heartiest  terms  their  indebtedness  to  the  volumes  already  issued. 
Pastors  have  found  them  instructive  and  stimulating  as  Bible  studies. 
Teachers  have  been  aided  by  them  to  impress  the  truth  warmly  and  effect- 
ively on  the  conscience  and  the  heart.  These  sermons  have  been  read  in 
prayer-meetings,  teachers'  meetings,  and  the  regular  services  of  the  church. 
The  entire  series  has  a  permanent  value  as  treatises  on  the  Sunday-school 

lessons. 

From  hosts  of  commendations,  in  letters  and  by  the  press,  we  select  the 
folloA\-ing :  — 

"They  are  simple.  Scriptural,  devout,  earnest,  and  practical.  To  workers 
in  the  Sunday-school  they  will  be  of  very  great  service,  not  as  exegetical 
studies,  but  as  assistants  in  the  application  of  truth  to  the  heart  and  the  con- 
science."—TAe  Watchman. 

"These  sermons  are  models  of  their  kind.  They  are  short,  and  might  be 
delivered  without  weariness  at  the  close  of  the  Sabbath  schooV -ZioiVs 
Herald. 

.    "  Happily  conceived  and  admirably  executed.     They  deserve  and  will 
secure  a  wide  circulation."— Tr?>i.  Ormiston,  D.D.,  Neio  York. 

"Am  very  much  struck  with  their  wisdom,  clearness,  and  point.  They 
seem  to  be  just  what  would  prove  suggestive  and  helpful  to  Sunday-school 
teachers."— i?er.  Phillips  Brooks,  Boston. 

"  I  could  heartily  wish  that  it  might  find  its  way  into  the  Baptist,  as  well  as 
all  other  schools  which  use  the  course  of  \essons.''-Preside7it  Cakhvell  of 
Vassar  College. 

"The  style  is  very  pure,  chaste,  and  forcible,  and  the  contents  cast  in 
such  a  way  that  it  will  be  very  helpful  to  Christians,  as  well  as  instructive  to 
Sunday-school  teachers."  —  C.  L.  Goodell,  D.D.,  St.  Louis. 

For  Sale  by  all  Booksellers,  or  serd,  post-paid,  on 
receipt  of  price,  by 

Congregational  Publishing  Society,  Boston. 

GEO.   P.   SMITH,   Agent. 


Studies  of  the  Old  Testament. 


BY  AUSTIN  PHELPS,  D.D., 

Professor  at   Andover  Theological    Seminarj-. 

Author  of  "  Still  Hour,"'    '•  Work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,"    "  Theory 

of  Preaching,"    "Men  and  Books,'"  etc 


333  pp.     16mo.     Price,  $1.25. 


LIST  OF  SUBJECTS. 

The  Propliet  of  the  Broken  Heart. 

God  works  with  Minorities  who  are  working  for  Him. 

A  Model  of  Prayer  in  Emergencies. 

An  Ancient  Revival  of  Religion. 

Christian  Alliances  with  "Wicked  Men. 

Honoring  God's  House. 

Presumption  in  the  Worship  of  God. 

Fidelity  to  the  Religion  of  a  Godly  Ancestry. 

The  Lost  Son  of  a  Godly  Father. 

The  Godly  Son  of  an  Ungodly  Father. 

The  Prodigal  Son  of  Godly  Parents. 

The  Twin  Serpents. 

Avowed  Enemies  of  Religion. 

A  Talk  with  Young  People  about  Josiah. 

An  Ancient  Model  of  Youthful  Temperance. 

The  Lost  Bible. 

Good  Men  who  are  not  Churchmen. 

Intertwining  of  God's  Plans  with  the  Plans  of  Men. 

The  Kingdoms  that  die,  and  the  Kingdom  that  lives. 

Fruitless  Convictions  of  Sin. 

The  Men  in  the  Fire. 

The  Man  in  the  Lions'  Den. 

The  Fulfilment  of  Prophecy  in  the  Career  of  Cyrus. 

Christ  the  Centre  of  Biblical  Thought. 


"  The  Publishing  Society  has  done  nothing  better  of  late  than  this  issue  of 
Prof.  Austin  Phelps'  '  Studies  of  the  Old  Testament.'  Says  the  author: 
*  If  the  volume  serves  to  illustrate,  in  any  degree,  how  ancient  and  neglected 
Scriptures  may  be  revived  in  the  popular  interf^st,  and  thus  to  show  the  per- 
petuity of  the  Old  Testament  as  a  lirinf/  book  for  all  ages,  the  object  of  this 
publication  will  be  accomplished.'  And  this  is  precisely  the  service  which 
the  volume  is  eminently  fitted  to  render."  —  Advance. 

For  Sale  by  all  Booksellers,  or  sent,  post-paid,  on 
receipt  of  price,  by 

Congregational  Publishing  Society,  Boston. 

GEO.   P.   SMITH,    Agent. 


Galilee  iii  the  Time  of  Christ. 

BY  SELAH  MERRILL,  D.D., 

U.S.   CONSUL   AT  JERUSALEM. 

No  Book  lias  received  more  unqualified  commendation  from  the 
Press  of  this  country  and  Europe. 

Post-paid,  $1.00. 

•'  A  picture  of  Galilee  as  it  was  in  the  time  of  Christ  —  a  picture  so  im- 
mensely different  from  the  one  which  the  present  condition  of  the  country 
suggests  as  possible,  and  scarcely  less  different  from  the  one  popularly  enter- 
tained concerning  the  former  resources,  population,  and  culture  of  the 
Galileans.  A  glance  ai  the  book  is  sufficient  to  show  that  its  preparation 
must  have  cost  careful  study  ;  a  perusal  of  it  only  coutirms  the  impression  of 
scholarly  painstaking."  —  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  April,  1882. 

"With  great  industry  Dr.  ^Merrill  has  collected  from  the  most  varied 
sources,  information  which  Avill  be  of  great  use  to  those  who  have  not  the 
means  to  consult  the  original  authorities  for  themselves." — London  Athemeum, 
Jan.  14,  1882. 

"He  is  well  acquainted  with  the  literature  of  the  subject,  particularly  the 
German  :  the  descriptions  of  the  activities  of  the  inhabitants  are  very  striking, 
and  the  style  is  easy  and  floAving."  —  Theolof/ische  Literatur,  Zeitunrj,  Leipzig, 
February,  1882. 

"  No  clergyman  can  afford  to  be  without  the  information  which  is  embodied 
in  this  beautifully  conceived  and  executed  little  treatise."  —  Christian  Lender, 
Boston. 

"  Sunday-school  teachers  will  find  its  compact  and  clear  pages  of  service 
in  interpreting  the  life  of  the  early  time."  —  Christian  lief/lsfer. 

"  Its  full  index  makes  it  equally  serviceable  as  a  book  for  reference  and 
reading."  —  Ifew  York  Obserrer. 

"  A  book  of  interest  alike  to  Jews  and  Christians.  Dr.  :Merrill  has  almost 
exhausted  all  that  has  appeared  in  reference  to  his  theme." —  Jewish  Mes- 
senger. 

••  The  great  benefit  from  this  volume  is  that  the  careful  reader  will  feel 
that  he  knows  the  scene  of  our  Lord's  journeys,  and  almost  sets  his  own  foot 
on  that  sacred  region  of  the  East."—  The  Pacific,  San  Francisco. 

"  This  little  monograph  is  the  best  authority  on  the  subject  of  which  it 
treats  to  be  found  in  the  English  language."  —  Christian  Union. 

"  It  stands  almost,  if  not  quite,  alone  as  a  monograph  on  this  subject.  It  is 
very  readable  as  well  as  full  of  interesting  matter."  —  Sunday  School  Times. 

"  Dr.  Merrill's  life  at  the  East  in  connection  with  the  Palestine  Explora- 
tion Society  Researches  furnishes  to  all  strangers  that  certificate  of  his 
fitness  to  speak  with  authority  in  these  departments,  which,  however,  is  not 
required  by  those  who  personally  know  him  and  his  work."  —  Congrega- 
tionalist. 

For  Sale  by  all  Booksellers,  or  sent,  post-paid,  on 
receipt  of  price,  by 

Congregational  Publishing  Society,  Boston. 

GEO.   P.   SMITH,   Agent. 


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